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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
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THE  GRAFTON  HISTORICAL  SERIES 
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OLD  STEAMBOAT  DAYS 
ON  THE  HUDSON  RIVER 

TALES  AND  REMINISCENCES  OF  THE   STIRRING 

TIMES  THAT  FOLLOWED  THE  INTRODUCTION 

OF  STEAM  NAVIGATION 

BY 

DAVID  LEAR  BUCKMAN 


^% 

i 

THE   GRAFTON  PRESS 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


Copyright.  1907 
By  the  GRAFTON  PRESS 


HE 


FOREWORD 

• 

THE  approaching  dual  celebration  of  the  Ter- 
centennial of  Henry  Hudson's  discovery  of  the 
great  river  bearing  his  name,  and  the  Centennial  of 
Robert  Fulton's  successful  application  of  steam  to 
navigation  on  that  same  stream,  would  seem  to  warrant 
the  appearance  of  this  little  volume.  Aside  from  this 
fact,  the  subject  is  one  that  calls  up  many  interesting 
reminiscences  on  topics  that  have  not  heretofore  been 
grouped  along  the  lines  the  author  has  endeavored  to 
follow. 

Most  of  the  old  river  men  best  calculated  to  furnish 
both  information  and  advice  in  the  preparation  of  a 
book  such  as  this,  have  gone  on  their  last  long  trip, 
while  those  who  remain  are  comparatively  few  and 
widely  scattered.  There  are  possibly  still  many  old 
steamboat  men  who  have,  stored  away  in  ancient  scrap- 
books  and  records,  highly  interesting  data  that  should 
be  brought  together  in  some  permanent  form — and 
which  the  writer  would  be  pleased  to  incorporate  in 
some  future  edition — for  the  benefit  of  those  who  may 
seek  to  learn  something  more  of  the  unfolding  of  one 
of  the  most  glorious  and  important  periods  in  the 
country's  development.     To  those  who  have  helped  the 


485304 

LIBRARY 


vi  l'\)ro\vonl 

;uitlu)r  in  any  wny — and  there  have  been  many — grateful 
acknowledgment  is  hereby  given.  Many  books  have 
aided  in  I'urnishing  the  data  that  will  be  found  in  the 
following  })ages,  among  the  number  being  "Reigart's 
lJiogra})hy,"  J.  II.  Morrison's  "History  of  American 
Steam  Navigation  "  and  "  Munsell's  Annals."  Special 
thanks  are  due  Mr.  Samuel  Ward  Stanton,  editor  of 
the  "  Nautical  Gazette,"  for  his  permission  to  use  the  in- 
teresting table  of  old  boats,  prepared  by  him,  and  sev- 
eral illustrations  that  have  appeared  in  that  publication. 

The  fact  that  the  author's  father  followed  the  river 
for  many  years,  handling  the  wheel  of  the  old  North 
America  on  her  sprints  to  cut  down  the  time,  and  his 
great-uncle  commanded  the  good  sloop  Robert  Burns 
long  before  that,  carrying  both  freight  and  passengers, 
has  added  no  small  degree  of  interest  to  the  labor 
involved  in  the  preparation  of  "Old  Steamboat  Days 
on  the  Hudson." 

To  the  memory  of  his  father  in  particular,  the  author 
would  inscribe  whatever  of  interest  and  value  may  be 
found  in  this  tribute  to  the  men  of  the  early  days,  who 
made  possible  the  important  chapter  of  the  country's 
history  that  deals  with  steam  navigation  on  the  Hud- 
son River. 

D.  L.  B. 

September  30,  1907. 


CONTENTS 

I  Robert  Fulton 1 

II  The  First  Steamboat       .        .        .        .10 

III  Some  Old-timers 18 

IV  Rival  Lines  on  the  River       .         .         .30 
V  How  the  Great  River  Monopoly  was 

Broken 37 

VI  Steamboat  Evolution       .        .        .        -    53 

VII  Old  River  Captains         .         .         .         .59 

VIII  Fast  Time  on  the  River  .         .         .65 

IX  Disasters  of  River  Travel     .         .         .75 

X  Floating  Towns 84 

XI  Barge  Travel  on  the  River  .         .     93 

XII  The  Steamboats  of  To-day     .        .        .  100 

XIII  Hudson-Fulton  Memorials     .        .        .  108 

XIV  Henry  Hudson's  River    .        .        .        .114 

Appendix 125 

Index 137 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Historic  Hudson  River Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

John  Fitch's  Experiment 2 

Robert  Fulton;  from  West's  Portrait 8 

The  Clermont 12 

The  Fanny 20 

The  Norwich 24 

The  Armenia 28 

The  New  World 34 

The  Air  Line 42 

The  Riverside 48 

The  De  Witt  Clinton;  the  Champlain 56 

The  North  America 60 

The  Rip  Van  Winkle 62 

The  Mary  Powell 66 

The  Wreck  of  the  Swallow 78 

A  Packet  Boat  on  the  Erie  Canal 86 

A  Hudson  River  Tow 90 

The  Hendrick  Hudson 102 

The  Princeton 106 

Robert  Fulton;  from  a  Statue 112 

Hendrick  Hudson  on  the  Half  Moon;  from  a  panel  in  the  Astor 

Memorial  Doors  of  Trinity  Church 118 

Table  of  Prominent  Hudson  River  Steamboats,  1807-1907      .  136 


OLD   STEAMBOAT  DAYS 
ON  THE  HUDSON  RIVER 


OLD  STEAMBOAT  DAYS 

CHAPTER  I 

ROBERT   FULTON 

ROBERT  FULTON  will  always  be  known  as  the 
inventor  of  the  steamboat.  It  was  a  great  day  in 
the  world's  work,  when,  after  years  of  study,  experiment 
and  disappointment,  he  traveled  from  New  York  to 
Albany  on  his  little  steamboat  the  Clermont.  That  was 
in  August,  1807,  just  one  hundred  years  ago. 

A  new  distinction  was  added  to  the  noble  Hudson, 
that  of  being  the  first  river  on  which  a  successful 
demonstration  of  steam  navigation  had  been  made. 
There  had  been  previous  efforts  made  both  in  this 
country  and  abroad  to  apply  the  steam  engine,  yet  in 
the  infancy  of  its  development,  to  the  navigation  of 
boats,  but  without  practical  results. 

Fulton  himself  had  made  a  trial  on  the  Seine,  France, 
in  1803,  and  failed.  The  boat  was  too  frail  to  stand  the 
weight  of  the  engine  and  boilers  and  they  had  broken 
through  the  bottom  of  the  craft  during  an  overnight 
storm  and  sunk  in  the  river.  Others  had  tried  before 
him.     James  Rumsey  in  1784  on  the  Potomac  sought 


2  Old  Steamboat  Days 

to  propel  a  boat  by  forcing  a  jet  of  water  from  the  stern 
with  piiiiips  worked  by  steam.  Some  of  his  experi- 
meiils  with  tlie  boat  were  witnessed  by  General  Wash- 
ington and  other  officers  of  the  Army,  but  they  were 
failures.  John  Fitch  had  tried  his  boats  on  the  Dela- 
ware at  Philadelphia  (1790),  and  on  the  Collect  Pond, 
N.  Y.  (1796),  and  failed.  Elijah  Ormsbee,  with  his 
"goosefoot"  paddles,  had  attempted  the  same  thing  at 
Pawtucket,  R.  I.  (1792),  and  John  Stevens  crossed 
the  river  from  Hoboken  to  New  York  (1804)  in  a 
boat  fitted  with  a  steam  engine  of  his  own  construc- 
tion, but  all  of  these  efforts  were  barren  of  practical 
results. 

It  remained  for  Fulton  to  inaugurate  on  the  Hudson 
the  system  of  navigation  that  was  to  revolutionize  the 
carrying  trade  of  the  world. 

Robert  Fulton  was  born  on  a  farm  in  Little  Britain, 
Pa.,  November  14th,  1765.  His  father  was  an  Irish- 
man, of  Scotch  ancestry,  however,  named  Robert  Ful- 
ton, who  settled  in  Philadelphia  and  there  married 
Mary  Smith,  a  native  of  that  city.  Most  of  his  early 
education  was  received  in  a  school  at  Lancaster,  Pa., 
where  the  family  had  removed,  presided  over  by  a  dig- 
nified Quaker.  Fulton  was  not  an  apt  pupil.  When 
not  busy  with  his  books,  for  he  was  not  a  lazy  scholar, 
he  haunted  the  shops  of  the  town,  as  he  early  manifested 
an  interest  in  all  mechanical  matters.  A  gunsmith's 
shop  in  the  village  seemed  to  possess  an  especial  at- 


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Robert  Fulton  3 

traction  for  him  and  some  of  his  suggestions  were  even 
adopted  by  the  workmen.  While  a  boy  Fulton  made 
sky  rockets  for  his  own  amusement,  and  experiments 
with  mercury  and  bullets  gave  him  the  name  of  "  Quick- 
silver Bob"  among  his  companions. 

He  early  developed  an  aptitude  for  making  sketches, 
and  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  having  determined  to  be- 
come an  artist,  left  for  Philadelphia  to  study.  His 
father  had  been  dead  several  years,  but  he  had  been 
an  intimate  friend  of  the  father  of  Benjamin  West, 
who  had  then  become  a  celebrated  painter.  It  is  more 
than  hkely  that  this  fact  fired  young  Fulton's  ambition 
to  become  an  artist.  Afterward  Fulton  met  West,  the 
artist,  in  England  and  they  became  fast  friends. 

In  Philadelphia  young  Fulton  painted  portraits  and 
landscapes,  made  drawings  of  houses  and  machinery 
and  busied  himself  so  industriously  during  the  four 
years  of  his  stay  in  the  city,  he  not  only  supported  liim- 
self,  but  was  able  to  contribute  something  to  his  widowed 
mother  at  home.  He  must  have  made  considerable 
money,  for  in  1785  he  bought  a  farm  at  Hopewell, 
Washington  County,  Pa.,  paying  eighty  pounds  sterhng 
for  it,  and  in  this  homestead  he  installed  his  mother 
and  the  family. 

Fulton,  while  in  Pliiladelpliia,  met  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin and  many  who  had  become  prominent  during  the 
Revolution,  then  just  brought  to  a  close.  It  is  quite 
likely  that  some  of  these  may  have  suggested  the  idea, 


4  Old  Steamboat  Days 

wliich  lie  put  into  effect  as  soon  as  he  was  twenty-one, 
of  nuiking  a  trip  to  Europe.  This  was  a  great  under- 
taking in  those  days  and  especially  for  one  so  young. 
He  carried  several  letters  to  Americans  abroad  from 
his  friends  in  Philadclpliia,  and  he  had  already  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Benjamin  West  by  correspondence. 
West  was  so  pleased  with  his  young  countryman,  he 
took  liim  into  his  own  family,  where  he  remained  several 
years.  This  introduction  to  the  English  people  by 
West,  then  at  the  height  of  his  fame  as  an  artist,  did 
much  for  Fulton.  He  industriously  painted  portraits 
and  landscapes,  which  gave  him  a  means  for  support, 
but  he  was  constantly  making  mechanical  experi- 
ments. 

He  published  a  pamphlet  on  canals,  patented  a 
dredging  machine  and  several  other  inventions,  some 
of  which  were  of  great  utiUty. 

Fulton  went  to  Paris  in  1797,  having  acquired 
more  fame  as  an  inventor  than  a  painter.  There  he 
secured  accommodations  in  a  hotel  occupied  by  Joel 
Barlow,  an  American  citizen,  also  somewhat  of  a 
projector  and  a  man  of  considerable  literary  ability. 
Barlow  produced  among  other  works  "  The  Columbiad," 
a  national  epic,  which  he  dedicated  "to  his  friend 
Robert  Fulton."  In  Paris,  Fulton  studied  French, 
German,  mathematics  and  chemistry.  The  practical 
result  of  the  application  of  the  two  latter  studies  was 
that  his  active  mind  turned  to  the  production  of  tor- 


Robert  Fulton  5 

pedoes,  and  of  submarine  boats  from  which  to  fire 
them,  at  the  hulls  of  an  enemy's  warships. 

He  achieved  some  success  with  both.  He  gave  an 
exhibition  of  his  plunging  boat  in  the  harbor  of  Brest 
before  commissioners  of  the  French  Admiralty,  in  1801, 
using  air  stored  in  a  copper  globe,  condensed  to  200 
atmospheres,  from  which  he  took  supplies  of  fresh  air 
as  required.  He  stayed  under  water  over  four  hours 
and  was  highly  pleased  with  the  result  of  his  effort, 
but  he  failed  to  secure  any  aid  from  the  French  Govern- 
ment to  develop  the  invention. 

The  English  Government,  always  alert  to  what  the 
French  were  doing  in  those  days,  invited  Fulton  to  come 
to  England  with  his  torpedoes  and  diving  boats.  It 
was,  of  course,  as  it  had  to  be,  a  very  circuitous,  round- 
about sort  of  invitation,  and  there  were  many  vexatious 
delays.  When  Fulton  finally  reached  London  in  May, 
1805,  he  found  the  men  who  had  invited  him  there, 
retired  from  office.  Finally,  through  Pitt's  influence, 
which  had  been  secured,  he  blew  up  an  old  brig, 
Dorothea,  provided  by  the  Government.  The  boat  had 
been  anchored  in  Walmer  Roads  near  Deal.  Walmer 
Castle,  hard  by,  was  the  residence  of  Pitt,  the  Prime 
Minister,  and  he  and  a  large  number  of  officers  in  the 
navy  witnessed  the  torpedo  experiment,  which  was  in 
a  way  a  success,  for  the  old  brig  was  blown  to  splinters 
and  sank. 

A  Royal  Commission,  after  considering  the  matter  for 


6  C)1<1  Steamboat  Days 

a  lon<T  while.  ofTered  Fulton  a  reward  for  his  trouble 
aiul  expense  if  his  t()rj)eclo  system  was  suppressed,  as 
it  was  deemed  inhuman  warfare.  He  declined  promptly 
and  said  twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling  a  year 
would  not  tempt  him  to  do  so,  if  the  safety  and  inde- 
pendence of  his  country  should  have  need  of  his  torpe- 
does. 

Failins:  to  convince  the  English  he  resorted  to  America 
and  induced  the  United  States  Government  to  place  an 
old  vessel  at  his  disposal  for  an  experiment.  The 
torpedo  machinery  did  not  work  right  this  time  and 
the  trial  was  a  failure.  Fulton  knew  why,  but  ex- 
planations did  not  avail  and  the  Government  did  not 
adopt  the  device. 

IModern  torpedo  warfare  has  developed  along  the 
lines  Fulton  projected  and  none  of  the  great  maritime 
nations  are  now  without  their  torpedo  stations  and 
torpedo  boats  in  their  navies. 

Fulton  left  a  record  of  his  efforts  in  this  field  of  inves- 
tigation, entitled  "Torpedo  War  and  Submarine  Ex- 
plosions, by  Robert  Fulton,  Fellow  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  and  of  the  United  States  Military 
and  Philosophical  Society. "  The  imprint  is  1810  and 
it  was  issued  from  the  shop  of  William  Elliott  at  114 
Water  street.  New  York  City.  It  was  addressed  to  Presi- 
dent Madison  and  the  Members  of  both  Houses  of 
Congress.  The  title  page  bore  the  inscription  "The 
Liberty  of  the  Seas  will  be  the  Happiness  of  the  Earth." 


Robert  Fulton  7 

This,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  was  one  hundred 
years  before  steam,  electricity,  compressed  air  or  any 
of  the  modern  methods  of  propulsion  had  been  devel- 
oped to  the  perfection  that  makes  it  feasible  to  apply 
them  to  the  present-day  submarines.  Fulton  was  called 
a  visionary,  when  in  fact  he  only  prophesied  in  part, 
that  of  which  the  present  generation  has  an  everyday 
reaUzation. 

Fulton's  busy  mind  had  not  alone  been  occupied 
with  torpedoes.  He  had  conceived  the  idea  of  propell- 
ing boats  by  steam  as  early  as  1793.  So  had  others  and 
many  were  experimenting.  Chancellor  Robert  R. 
Livingston,  of  New  York,  who  thought  he  had  solved 
the  problem  in  1798,  secured  the  passage  of  an  act  by 
the  New  York  Legislature,  giving  him  the  exclusive 
right  to  navigate  all  kinds  of  boats  which  might  be 
propelled  by  the  force  of  fire  or  steam  on  all  the  waters 
of  the  State,  for  twenty  years,  provided  that  within  a 
year  he  would  produce  a  boat  whose  progress  should 
not  be  less  than  four  miles  an  hour. 

Livingston  built  his  boat,  but  it  failed,  and  he  went 
to  France  as  the  United  States  Minister.  In  Paris  he 
met  his  fellow  countryman,  Fulton,  and  the  two  were 
soon  deeply  interested  in  the  steamboat  proposition. 
A  boat  was  built  and  equipped  with  an  engine,  on  the 
Seine,  in  1803,  and  came  to  grief  as  already  stated. 
The  engine  and  boiler  were  fished  out  of  the  river  and 
put  in  a  boat  sixty-six  feet  long  and  eight  feet  beam. 


8  OKI  Steamboat  Days 

Slir  liad  j)a(l(ll('  wheels  at  the  sides  and  though  she 
moved  through  llie  water  and  was  considered  wonderful 
by  those  who  saw-  her,  she  was  a  disappointment  to 
both  Fulton  and  Livingston.  They  determined  to  make 
another  effort  with  a  larger  boat  to  be  built  in  America 
and  to  be  sailed  on  the  Hudson.  Livingston  was  to 
supply  the  money  and  Fulton  to  do  the  work,  and  it 
was  thus  the  first  successful  steamboat  came  to  be 
built,  Fulton  returning  to  New  York  in  1806  for  this 
purpose. 

Livingston,  who  thus  became  Fulton's  partner  in  the 
development  of  steam  navigation,  was  one  of  New 
York's  most  famous  men  in  the  early  Colonial  period. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Continental  Congress,  one 
of  the  committee  that  drafted  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, one  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  State  of  New^  York,  its  first  Chancellor,  adminis- 
tered the  first  Presidential  oath  at  Washington's  in- 
auguration in  New  York  City  and  while  Minister  to 
France  and  experimenting  with  Fulton  on  steamboats, 
negotiated  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  from  Napoleon. 

He  and  Fulton  became  fast  friends.  Fulton  married 
Harriett,  daughter  of  Walter  Livingston,  a  relative  of 
the  Chancellor's,  and  when  he  came  to  die  as  he  did 
February  24,  1815,  he  was  buried  in  the  Livingston 
vault  in  Trinity  Churchyard,  New  York  City,  He  left 
his  wife,  one  son  and  three  daughters.  For  years  no 
monument    marked   the   grave    of   tliis    distinguished 


Robert  Fulton 

From  a  photojifraph  of  the  ori{i;iiiaI  pniiitiii;,^  made  in  Eiitjlaiul  about 
179.5  by  Heiijainiii  West,  and  now  owned  by  Fulton's    irrandsou, 
Robert  Fulton  Ludlow  of  ('lav<-raek,  N.  Y. 


Robert  Fulton  9 

man.  It  was  not  until  thirty-one  years  after  Fulton's 
death  that  Congress  voted  something  like  $76,300,  with- 
out interest,  to  reimburse  him  for  the  contracts  he  held 
at  the  time  of  his  death  with  the  Government  for  build- 
ing the  Vesuvius  and  other  vessels  of  war. 

He  was  about  six  feet  tall,  well  proportioned,  had  a 
face  marked  with  strong  features  and  dark  curly  hair. 
He  was  at  all  times  a  gentleman  and  a  most  engaging 
and  instructive  conversationalist.  When  at  work  on 
one  of  his  projects  or  inventions  he  labored  with  in- 
domitable industry  and  knew  no  discouragement,  even 
when  failure  confronted  him.  His  faith  in  himself  and 
his  inventions  made  him  surmount  every  difficulty. 
To  him,  failures  were  ever  "the  stepping-stones  to 
success." 


CHAPTER  II 


THE   FIRST   STEAMBOAT 


BEFORE  returning  to  America,  Fulton,  after  mak- 
ing the  compact  with  Livingston  to  build  a  boat 
on  the  Hudson,  hastened  to  England  to  place  the  order 
for  the  engine. 

It  was  built  largely  after  Fulton's  plans  and  drawings 
at  Boulton  &  Watt's  shops,  in  Birmingham,  and  sent 
to  this  country.  It  had  a  twenty-four  inch  cylinder 
and  four  foot  stroke,  while  the  boiler  was  twenty  feet 
long,  seven  feet  deep  and  eight  feet  wide. 

The  boat  was  built  on  the  East  River  at  the  yards 
of  Charles  Brownne.  It  was  one  hundred  and  tliirty 
feet  long,  sixteen  feet  beam,  seven  foot  hold,  and  drew 
twenty-eight  inches  of  water.  Others  give  her  length 
as  one  hundred  and  thirty-three  and  one  hundred  and 
forty  feet  and  draft  as  four  feet.  The  paddle  wheels 
were  at  the  side  and  uncovered.  They  were  fifteen  feet 
in  diameter,  four  feet  wide  with  a  dip  of  two  feet.  She 
was  named  the  Clermont  after  Chancellor  Livingston's 


The  First  Steamboat  11 

country  seat  on  the  east  shore  of  the  Hudson  River  in 
Columbia  County. 

After  many  disappointments  and  delays  Fulton  left 
New  York  for  Albany,  August  17,  1807,  in  his  little 
boat,  making  the  trip  in  thirty-two  hours,  and  success- 
fully demonstrated  to  the  world  the  possibilities  of 
steam  navigation.  Others  place  the  date  of  this  first 
steamboat  trip  as  one  week  earlier. 

Fulton's  own  account  of  that  first  memorable  trip  is : 

"I  left  New  York  on  Monday  at  four  o'clock  and 
arrived  at  Clermont,  the  seat  of  Chancellor  Livingston, 
at  one  o'clock  on  Tuesday,  time,  twenty-four  hours, 
distance,  one  hundred  and  ten  miles.  On  Wednesday  I 
departed  from  the  Chancellor's  at  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  arrived  at  Albany  at  five  in  the  afternoon ; 
distance,  forty  miles,  time,  eight  hours.  The  sum  is 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  thirty-two  hours,  equal 
to  near  five  miles  an  hour.  On  Thursday  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  morning  I  left  Albany  and  arrived  at  the 
Chancellor's  at  six  in  the  evening.  I  started  from 
thence  at  seven  and  arrived  at  New  York  at  four  in 
the  afternoon;  time,  thirty  hours,  space  run,  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  miles.  Throughout  my  whole  way,  both 
going  and  returning,  the  wind  was  ahead ;  no  advantage 
could  be  derived  from  my  sails;  the  whole  has,  there- 
fore, been  performed  by  the  power  of  the  steam  en- 
gine." 

With  what  solicitous  care  every  stroke  of  the  piston. 


12  Old  Steniuboat  Days 

ovcry  turn  i)f  the  patldlo  wheels  and  every  pound  of 
steam  in  the  boiler  must  have  been  watched  by  the 
in(loniital)le  Fulton.  With  what  pride  he  must  have 
written  his  old  friend  Joel  iiarlow: 

"The  power  of  propelling  boats  by  steam  is  now 
fully  proved.  The  morning  I  left  New  York  there 
were  not  perhaps  thirty  persons  in  the  city  who  be- 
lieved the  boat  would  ever  move  one  mile  an  hour, 
or  be  of  the  least  utility  and  while  we  were  putting  off 
from  the  wharf  I  heard  a  number  of  sarcastic  remarks. 
This  is  the  way  in  which  ignorant  men  compliment 
what  they  call  philosophers  and  projectors." 

It  will  be  noticed  that  in  Fulton's  account  of  his  trip 
he  impresses  the  fact  that  under  adverse  circumstances 
he  made  nearly  five  miles  an  hour.  This  fact  meant 
much  both  to  him  and  Chancellor  Livingston.  They 
had  procured  another  enactment  by  the  Legislature 
giving  them  the  exclusive  right  and  privilege  of  navi- 
gating all  kinds  of  boats  by  steam,  on  all  the  waters 
of  the  State  for  the  term  of  twenty  years,  upon  condi- 
tion that  they  would  produce  a  boat  of  not  less  than 
twenty  tons  burden,  which  would  move  with  and 
against  the  current  of  the  Hudson  River  at  the  rate  of 
jour  miles  an  hour. 

The  condition  had  been  fulfilled,  steamboating  on 
the  Hudson  had  begun,  but  many  a  hard-fought  battle 
was  ahead  of  Fulton  and  Livingston  to  protect  the 
"exclusive"  privilege  the  Legislature  had  given  them. 


The  First  Steamboat  13 

One  of  the  incidents  of  tliis  first  eventful  trip  of  the 
Clermont,  which  should  not  be  overlooked,  is  said  to 
have  been  the  announcement  of  the  betrothal  of  Fulton 
to  Harriet  Livingston,  a  relative  of  the  Chancellor's, 
and  whose  subsequent  marriage  has  already  been 
noticed  in  the  preceding  chapter. 

The  success  of  the  Clermont  as  a  passenger  boat  was 
assured  from  the  first.  People  would  not  content 
themselves  with  the  slow  travel  of  the  sloops  or  stage- 
coaches when  they  could  go  to  Albany  in  thirty-two 
hours  on  the  steamboat!  The  dangerous  competition, 
however,  was  feared  by  the  rivermen.  The  new  steam- 
boat was  obstructed  by  the  sloops  and  fouled  inten- 
tionally. The  very  next  winter  the  Legislature  was 
compelled  to  enact  a  law  imposing  a  fine  and  imprison- 
ment on  anyone  willfully  attempting  to  injure  the 
Clermont  or  any  other  steamboat.  The  same  act  also 
provided  a  five  year  extension  of  the  exclusive  privilege 
to  Livingston  and  Fulton,  for  every  additional  boat  they 
should  build  and  put  on  the  river. 

The  Clermont  was  much  like  a  schooner,  built  with 
two  masts  and  an  exceedingly  large  funnel,  for  she 
burned  pine  wood  under  her  boilers.  She  poured  out 
volumes  of  black  smoke,  which  at  night  assumed  a 
more  startling  effect,  on  account  of  the  sparks  that  flew 
out  with  the  smoke. 

A  writer  of  the  day  assures  us : 

"The  crews  of  many  sailing  vessels  shrunk  beneath 


14  Old  Steamboat  Days 

their  decks  at  the  terrific  sight,  while  others  prostrated 
themselves  jind  besought  Providence  to  protect  them 
from  liic  approach  of  the  horrible  monster  which  was 
marching  on  the  tide  and  lighting  its  path  by  the  fire 
that  it  vomited." 

One  of  the  farmers  who  witnessed  this  strange  ap- 
parition on  the  river  hurried  home  and  assured  his 
wife  and  friends  he  "had  seen  the  devil  going  up  the 
river  in  a  sawmill." 

As  soon  as  the  Clermont's  first  season  was  closed,  she 
was  hauled  out  of  the  river  at  Red  Hook  for  several 
improvements,  which  the  practical  operation  of  the 
boat  had  suggested  to  Fulton's  mind.  She  was  in- 
creased in  length  from  one  hundred  and  thirty  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  and  in  beam  from  sixteen  to 
eighteen  feet.  Her  cabin  work  was  enlarged  and  her 
machinery  overhauled.  The  cast  iron  wheel  shaft  was 
replaced  by  one  of  wrought  iron  and  outside  supports 
were  built  for  the  paddle  wheel  shaft,  relieving  the 
strain  that  had  been  manifest  from  the  first.  The 
paddle  wheels  were  also  boxed  in  at  the  same  time. 
She  was  renamed  the  North  River  and  went  into  regular 
service  on  the  Hudson  at  the  opening  of  na\igation. 
Her  boiler,  however,  gave  out  and  after  a  delay  of  two 
months  she  was  fitted  with  a  new  one  and  the  boat  ran 
regularly  for  the  balance  of  the  season,  with  Samuel 
Jenkins  as  captain  and  David  Mandeville  as  pilot. 

One  of  the  last  survivors  of  the  first  trip  of  the  North 


The  First  Steamboat  15 

River  to  Albany,  in  a  letter  written  in  1857,  describing 
the  trip,  says: 

"At  the  hour  appointed  for  her  departure,  9  a.  m., 
Chancellor  Livingston  with  a  number  of  invited  friends 
came  on  board,  and,  after  a  good  deal  of  bustle  and  no 
little  noise  and  confusion  the  boat  was  got  out  into  the 
stream  and  headed  up  the  river.  Steam  was  put  on 
and  sails  were  set,  for  she  was  provided  with  large 
square  sails,  attached  to  masts,  that  were  so  con- 
structed that  they  could  be  raised  and  lowered  as  the 
direction  and  strength  of  the  wind  might  require. 
There  was  at  this  time  a  light  breeze  from  the  south 
and  with  steam  and  sails  a  very  satisfactory  rate  of 
speed  was  obtained,  and  as  the  favorable  wind  con- 
tinued we  kept  on  the  even  tenor  of  our  way  and  just 
before  sunrise,  next  morning,  we  were  at  Clermont, 
the  residence  of  the  Chancellor,  who  with  his  friends 
landed  and  the  boat  proceeded  to  Albany,  where  she 
arrived  at  two  or  three  o'clock,  p.  m." 

It  Qost  something  to  travel  by  steamboat  those  days, 
but  the  boat  did  not  lack  patronage.  There  was  no 
fare  less  than  $1.00  for  any  fraction  of  twenty  miles. 
From  New  York  to  Verplanck's  Point  it  was  $2.00, 
West  Point,  $2.50,  Newburg,  $3.00,  Wappinger's 
Creek,  $3.25,  Poughkeepsie,  $3.50,  Hudson,  $5.00,  and 
Albany,  $7.00. 

Fulton,  as  soon  as  he  produced  a  practical  steam- 
boat, turned  his  attention  to   steam  ferryboats  for  the 


1()  Old  Steamboat  Days 

North  and  East  Rivers.  The  Jersey  was  put  on  the 
river  in  1812  and  the  York  in  1813.  These  took  the 
phico  of  the  old  ferryboats  which  were  propelled  by 
driving  two  or  four  horses  round  and  round  in  the 
hold  of  the  boat.  The  horses  were  attached  to  a  pole 
connected  with  a  gear  movement  that  rotated  the 
])addle  wheels.  These  horse  boats  were  most  primitive 
affairs  and  very,  very  slow. 

The  steam  ferryboats  produced  by  Fulton  were  a 
great  improvement  on  the  old  horse  boats,  in  both 
speed  and  comfort.  They  were  twin  boats  having  two 
complete  hulls  and  united  by  a  bridge,  shaped  at 
both  ends  so  that  they  could  move  in  either  direction 
with  equal  rapidity.  One  of  the  boats  made  the  trip 
across  the  river  loaded  with  eight  four-wheel  carriages, 
twenty-nine  horses  and  one  hundred  passengers,  and 
it  was  considered  a  great  feat. 

Not  only  did  Fulton  devise  the  ferryboat,  but  he 
produced  the  pontoon  or  floating  bridge-dock  that 
rises  and  falls  with  the  tides  and  makes  it  possible  for 
the  trucks  and  carriages  to  drive  on  and  off  the  boats 
substantially  as  they  do  to-day. 

Though  Fulton's  grave  in  Trinity  Churchyard  for 
years  was  not  marked  by  any  monument,  his  name 
was  honored  in  Fulton  Ferry  and  to-day  you  may  take 
the  ferryboat  Fulton  if  you  will,  from  the  foot  of  one 
of  New  York's  most  busy  streets  of  the  same  name, 
and  land  at  the  foot  of  the  principal  street  in  Brooklyn, 


The  First  Steamboat  17 

also  bearing  the  same  illustrious  name.  Further,  as 
you  leave  the  ferryhouse  on  the  Brooklyn  side  you 
will  walk  beneath  the  statue  of  Fulton,  holding  in  his 
hand  a  model  of  his  ferryboat.  You  have  never  noticed 
it  possibly.  Next  time  you  are  going  that  way,  look; 
it  will  pay  you. 


CHAPTER  III 


SOME    OF   THE    OLD-TIMERS 


THE  improvement  of  steamboats  began  immediately 
after  the  Clermont's  successful  trip.  Practical  con- 
ditions had  demonstrated  the  lines  along  which  changes 
were  necessary. 

Many  others,  including  Col.  John  Stevens,  of  Ho- 
boken,  who  closely  presses  Fulton  for  the  honor  of 
practically  developing  steam  navigation,  were  at  work 
on  the  same  problem.  Stevens  developed  and  patented 
a  return  tubular  boiler  that  added  materially  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  steam  engine.  The  boilers  in  Fulton's 
first  boats  were  of  copper,  most  primitive  affairs,  and 
little  more  than  closed  vessels  in  which  to  confine  the 
steam  so  as  to  make  it  available  for  use  under  pressure. 

Fulton's  next  boat  for  river  travel  after  the  Clermont, 
had  the  ambitious  name  of  the  Car  of  Neptune.  She 
was  put  on  the  river  in  1809.  She  was  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  feet  long  and  was  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
five  tons  burden.  In  1811  the  Paragon,  one  hundred 
and  seventy-three  feet  long,  was  built  and  ran  on  the 


Some  of  the  Old-timers  19 

river,  alternating  with  the  Car  of  Neptune.  Each  of 
these  boats  was  an  improvement  on  its  immediate 
predecessor,  but  they  were  small,  most  of  the  space 
being  devoted  to  machinery.  The  accommodations 
for  passengers  were  limited,  and  freight  was  seldom, 
if  ever,  carried.  The  time  of  the  passage  was  cut  down 
nearly  one-half  that  of  the  Clermont. 

Fulton  died  in  1815  and  did  not  witness  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Chancellor  Livingston,  for  which  he  had 
outlined  plans.  This  vessel  was  a  marked  advance 
on  his  other  boats.  She  was  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
four  feet  long  and  thirty-two  feet  beam,  and  drew  seven 
feet  three  inches  of  water  when  loaded  and  measured 
four  hundred  and  ninety-six  tons  burden.  Her  engine 
was  seventy-five  horse  power  with  a  forty-five  inch 
cylinder  and  seven  foot  stroke.  The  boiler  was  twenty- 
eight  feet  long  and  twelve  feet  in  diameter.  She  had 
two  funnels  and  the  paddle  wheels  were  seventeen  feet 
in  diameter.  There  was  a  main  cabin  fifty-four  feet 
long,  with  thirty-eight  sleeping  berths;  above  that  a 
ladies'  cabin  with  twenty-four  berths  and  a  forward 
cabin,  with  fifty-six  berths.  These,  with  the  berths  for 
the  crew,  provided  sleeping  accommodations  for  one 
hundred  and  thirty-five  persons  and  she  was  considered 
a  great  boat  in  her  day.  She  could  make  twelve  miles 
an  hour  with  the  tide  and  six  against  it.  Subsequently 
she  was  lengthened  and  provided  with  a  more  powerful 
engine.     For  sixteen  years  she  successfully  navigated 


20  Old  Steamboat  Days 

the  Hudson,  taking  part  in  the  grand  naval  display 
that  marked  the  completion  of  the  Erie  Canal,  and 
figured  in  most  of  the  important  events  on  the  river  in 
that  period.  "  Commodore  "  \'anderbilt  bought  her  in 
183'-2  and  ran  her  as  an  opposition  boat  on  the  line 
between  Portland  and  Boston  where  she  continued 
until  "  broken  up, "  a  fate  that  generally  overtakes 
most  boats,  when  old  age  has  developed  such  a  struc- 
tural weakness  as  to  render  them  unsafe. 

Little  advance  was  made  with  new  river  boats  until 
the  monopoly  of  Fulton  and  Livingston  was  broken 
in  the  twenties,  after  which  capital  was  quickly  found 
for  investment  in  new  river  craft. 

Two  new  steamers,  the  Constellation  and  Constitution, 
appeared  in  1826.  They  were  a  marked  improvement 
on  the  Chancellor  Livingston.  They  cut  down  both 
the  time  to  Albany,  as  well  as  the  fares,  and  became 
great  favorites  with  the  public.  They  were  much 
longer  and  of  greater  beam.  The  question  was  gravely 
considered  whether  craft  of  this  length  could  be  ex- 
pected to  successfully  navigate  the  turns  of  the  river. 

The  development  of  the  steamboat  in  length  is 
shown  perhaps  more  clearly  in  the  statement  given 
below : 

Feet 
Clermont       .......     130 

Car  of  Neptune 175 

Ohio 192 


a 


Some  of  the  Old-timers 


21 


Albany  . 

. 

. 

.     212 

Swallow 

.     224 

DeWitt  Clinton     . 

.     233 

Alida    .... 

.     265 

Connecticut   . 

.     300 

Empire  State 

.     304 

Hendrik  Hudson 

.     320 

Oregon 

.     330 

Isaac  Neivton 

.     338 

New  World 

.     385 

C.  W.  Morse  (Peoples'  Line,  1907) 

.     427 

Princeton  (Peoples'  Lin( 

J,  190 

8)     . 

.     440 

This  list  does  not  begin  to  include  all  the  more 
prominent  passenger  boats  of  the  time.  There  was  the 
Rip  Van  Winkle  and  the  Henry  Clay,  both  popular 
boats  with  the  public.  Then  there  was  the  Atlas 
and  the  Express,  North  America,  South  America,  Boli- 
var, Richmond,  James  Kent,  Independence,  Nimrod, 
Champion,  Rhode  Island,  Niagara,  Troy,  St.  Nicho- 
las, Fanny,  Berkshire,  Manhattan,  Glen  Cove,  United 
States,  Sandusky,  Ohio,  Henry  Eckford,  Albany,  Union, 
Shephard  Knapp,  Hero,  Eagle,  Fairfield,  Hope,  Advo- 
cate, Robt.  L.  Stevens,  James  Madison,  Cataline, 
Buffalo,  Diamond,  Hendrik  Hudson,  Empire,  Erie, 
Champlain,  Emerald,  Neiv  Philadelphia,  City  of  Hud- 
son, P.  G.  Coffin,  Legislator,  Rockland,  Helen,  Jenny 
Lind,  Westchester,  Knickerbocker,  Kosciusko,  Isaac  New- 


•ii  Old  Steamboat  Days 

ton,  Eurcica,  Xuhpa,  Washington,  Curtis  Peck,  Wave, 
Portsmouth,  Gen  I  Jackson,  Illinois,  Metamora,  Iron 
Witch,  Roger  Williams,  Confidence,  New  Jersey,  Sun, 
America,  Santa  Clans,  Thomas  Powell  and  Columbia. 

Of  later  date  were  the  Mary  Powell,  Dean  Richmond, 
St.  John,  Daniel  Drew,  Chauncey  Vibbard,  Drew,  the 
McManus,  Andrew  Harder,  the  W\  C.  Red  field,  the 
M.  Martin,  the  Catskill  now  the  City  of  Hudson,  the 
John  L.  Hasbrook  now  the  Marlboro,  the  D.  S.  Miller 
now  the  Poughkeepsie,  the  Jas.  W.  Baldwin  now  the 
Central  Hudson,  the  Thomas  Cornell,  the  Wm.  F. 
Romer,  the  Kaaterskill,  the  Coxsackie,  the  Ulster  and 
the  Chrystenah,  all  of  which  helped  to  earn  money  for 
their  owners  and  fame  for  their  captains. 

What  a  train  of  pleasant  reminiscence  the  names  of 
the  old  steamers  invoke.  Some  will  remember  them, 
when  in  their  pride  of  new  paint  and  bunting,  they 
endeavored  to  wrest  the  record  for  speed  from  their 
rivals  on  the  river.  Others  will  recall  the  journeys 
made  to  spend  midsummer  vacation  days  in  the  woods 
and  mountains.  To  some,  the  memories  will  go  back 
to  the  time  of  the  greatest  trip  of  all  their  lives — and 
may  they  have  been  happy  ones — ^when  they  went 
honeymooning  up  the  river,  for  mind  you  a  steamboat 
journey  in  the  days  of  which  we  write  was  quite  the 
luxury  of  travel.  Sadder  journeys  too  have  followed, 
when  loved  ones  have  been  carried  to  the  last  resting 
place    in  the  churchyards  of    the  little  North  River 


Some  of  the  Old-timers  23 

towns  from  which  many  famihes  have  drifted  to  the 
big  cities. 

The  favorite  sons  of  the  young  Repubhc  were  not 
overlooked  in  the  names  of  the  river  steamboats.  One 
of  them  bore  the  name  of  Kosciusko,  the  young  Pole 
who  fought  with  the  Colonists  in  the  War  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  whose  name  in  those  earlier  days  was 
far  more  frequently  heard  than  now.  He  was  one  of 
Washington's  military  family,  being  an  aide  to  the 
General,  and  was  much  thought  of  by  all  the  officers. 
After  his  return  to  Poland  at  the  close  of  our  war,  he 
was  made  a  prisoner  for  heading  a  revolution  in  his 
native  country  and  imprisoned  at  St.  Petersburg.  He 
was  finally  liberated  and  revisited  the  United  States  in 
1817,  and  several  years  after  the  cadets  at  West  Point, 
erected  the  monument  you  can  see  from  the  deck  of  the 
passing  boat,  on  the  spot  that  marks  the  place  where 
Fort  Clinton  once  stood. 

Another  was  the  General  Jackson,  named  in  honor  of 
"  Old  Hickory,"  who,  after  fighting  for  his  country  in 
1812,  captured  the  presidency,  and  another  the  Henry 
Clay,  after  the  people's  idol,  the  senator  of  Kentucky 
who  never  reached  the  Presidency,  the  height  of  his 
ambition,  and  whose  namesake  in  the  boat  line  be- 
came a  disastrous  wreck  by  burning  near  Riverdale. 

Many  present-day  readers  who  have  noted  among 
the  old-timers  the  Isaac  Newton,  may  have  imagined 
it  was  Sir  Isaac,  the  observer  of  the  downward  tendency 


24  OKI  Steamboat  Days 

of  unsuspcndcd  apples,  that  okl  boatmen  honored,  but 
such  was  not  the  case.  Isaac  Newton  was  a  Rensselaer 
County  man,  who  was  thirteen  years  old  when  the  first 
steamboat  trip  was  made  up  the  Hudson  and  retained 
a  vivid  recollection  of  that  great  event  until  his  death 
in  1858.  He  became  a  boat  owner,  established  the  first 
line  of  tow  boats  on  the  Hudson  and  in  1835  brought  out 
the  steamboat  Balloon,  which  was  followed  by  the  North 
and  South  America,  Isaac  Newton,  New  World,  Hend- 
rik  Hudson,  etc.,  whose  elegant  appointments  for  the 
accommodation  of  passengers  secured  for  the  Hudson 
River  steamboats  the  appellation  of  floating  palaces. 
Newton  caused  to  be  built  nearly  one  hundred  steam- 
boats, ocean  steamers  and  river  barges.  He  lived  in 
New  York  City,  was  one  of  the  principal  owners  of  the 
People's  Line  of  steamboats  and  an  active  Baptist  in  the 
Old  Oliver  Street  Church.  He  was  over  sixty-three  years 
old  when  he  died. 

Daniel  Drew,  Chauncey  Vibbard,  Erastus  Coming, 
Capt.  A.  P.  St.  John  and  Dean  Richmond  were  all 
captains  of  industry  in  their  day  and  generation,  whose 
investments  in  this  line  signalized  them  as  proper 
persons  for  such  historical  fame  as  may  be  secured  in 
the  name  of  a  steamboat. 

Some  of  the  old-timers  have  changed  their  names 
as  frequently  as  a  popular  divorcee.  There  is  the  old 
Tolchester  still  doing  duty,  but  Avith  a  history  behind 
her.     Boats,  indeed,  in  changing  their  names  are  not 


Some  of  the  Old-timers  25 

unlike  some  women,  -  in  trying  to  have  the  past  for- 
gotten. Who  remembers  the  Tolchester  as  the  Samuel 
M.  Felton,  new  in  1866  ?  That  is  quite  a  way  back, 
but  there  are  gray  heads  whose  memories  go  back  to 
the  old  Sleepy  Hollow  which  became  the  Long  Branch 
and  ran  to  the  resort  of  the  same  name,  then  in  the 
height  of  its  popularity  with  the  fashionable  set  as  a 
summer  place  by  the  sea. 

The  Hudson  River  Railroad  was  not  completed  all 
the  way  through  to  Albany  until  October  8,  1851, 
when  it  was  formally  opened.  The  building  had  pro- 
gressed as  far  as  Poughkeepsie  in  1850  and  from  that 
point  the  rest  of  the  journey  was  made  on  the  Armenia 
and  Joseph  Belknap^  which  ran  in  connection  with  the 
trains  to  and  from  New  York  City. 

Reginald  Fowler,  an  Englishman,  who  made  a  trip 
up  the  Hudson  in  the  fifties  on  one  of  the  old  boats, 
said  of  them :  "  The  Americans  take  great  pride  in  these 
boats  and  spare  no  expense  on  them — the  meals  are 
well  served  and  the  bar  produces  every  kind  of  bever- 
age. In  English  steamboats  the  ladies  are  generally 
worse  accommodated  than  the  stronger  sex.  In  Amer- 
ica this  is  not  the  case ;  the  best  part  of  the  boat  is  used 
for  their  accommodation.  All  must  give  way  to  them. 
No  man  is  admitted  into  the  dining  saloon  until  all 
the  ladies  are  seated  at  the  table,  when  they  rush  in 
pellmell.  After  that  should  a  lady  require  either,  the 
chair  is,  without  ceremony,  taken  from  under  you  and 


26  Old  Steamboat  Days 

the  plate  from  before  you.  No  male  epicure  will  here 
be  able  to  gratify  his  appetite  with  tid  bits.  Should  he 
make  an  attempt  to  do  so  it  will  be  futile.  A  lady,  sir! 
is  considered  sufficient.  Away  goes  his  plate  which  can 
only  be  followed  with  a  sigh;  remonstrance  would  be 
vain.  The  Americans  pride  themselves  on  their 
courtesy  to  women  and  consider  it  a  sign  of  high 
civilization;  and  they  are  no  doubt  right,  but  it  seemed 
to  me  to  be  carried  to  an  extreme;  that  women  were 
treated  like  petted  children  and  that  they  must  often 
feel  rather  annoyed  than  pleased  by  the  excessive 
politeness  and  consideration  shown  them.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  an  honor  of  this  country  that  an  unprotected 
woman  of  any  age  may  travel  through  its  length  and 
breadth  from  Boston  to  New  Orleans,  from  New  York 
to  farthest  West  without  insult  or  the  slightest  attempt 
to  take  advantage  of  her  youth  or  inexperience." 

Most  of  the  old  boats  of  the  Fulton  type  had  a  steeple 
engine  operating  a  horizontal  cross  beam  up  and  down 
which  looks  odd  enough  to-day  when  most  river 
steamers  have  "walking  beams,"  or  are  of  the  propeller 
variety  with  none  at  all.  The  up  and  down  beam 
boats  have  all  been  broken  up  with  but  one  exception 
so  far  as  the  author  can  learn.  She  is  the  old  Norwich 
still  in  commission  as  a  towboat  on  the  upper  river. 
She  is  probably  the  oldest  boat  on  the  river,  having 
been  built  in  1836,  and  among  rivermen  is  known  as 
the  "  Ice  King."     Because  of  her  stout  hull  and  power- 


Some  of  the  Old-timers  27 

ful  engines  she  has  generally  been  the  first  boat  sent  out 
in  the  spring  to  break  the  way  through  the  soft  ice. 

Many  were  the  improvements  introduced  on  the  new 
boats  to  attract  passengers.  Each  in  turn  and  degree 
presented  something  in  comfort  or  increased  speed. 
One  of  the  most  notable  innovations  introduced  was  on 
the  steamer  Armenia  built  for  the  Day  Line,  so  called 
because  it  makes  the  entire  trip  from  Albany  to  New 
York  by  daylight  so  as  to  afford  its  patrons  a  view  of 
the  beautiful  river  scenery. 

The  Armenia  had  installed  upon  her  a  steam  calliope 
on  which  tunes  more  or  less  musical  were  played.  The 
resounding  echoes  awakened  in  the  Highlands  were 
somewhat  weird  and  wonderful.  The  calliope  was 
simply  a  series  of  steam  whistles  pitched  in  various 
keys,  of  sufficient  number  to  produce  the  notes  re- 
quired to  play  a  tune.  Its  range  was  about  equal  to 
that  of  the  chimes  in  a  church  belfry.  The  Armenia 
was  considered  something  remarkable  when  she  first 
appeared,  as  indeed  she  was.  The  demand,  however, 
on  her  boilers  for  steam  to  supply  all  the  steam  whistles 
was  so  great,  that  the  expense  of  furnishing  the  pas- 
sengers with  steam  tunes  on  the  trips  up  and  down  the 
river  was  more  than  the  operating  company  could 
afford.  The  calliope  was  taken  out  and  sent  to  the 
junk  shop.  The  Armenia  ran  for  years  without  her 
musical  attachment,  and  was  one  of  the  speedy  boats 
of  the  river. 


28  Old  Steamboat  Days 

With  her  calliope  on  board  she  carae  near  being  an 
exempUfication  of  the  steamboat  President  Lincoln 
used  to  tell  about,  as  reminding  him  of  some  men  he 
knew.  He  said  there  was  a  fussy  little  steamboat  on 
the  Mississippi  that  had  such  a  big  whistle  that  every 
time  they  blew  it,  it  took  so  much  steam,  the  boat  stood 
still. 

There  have  been  two  other  boats  on  the  river  with 
calliopes,  the  Glen  Cove  and  the  General  Sedgwick,  but 
the  "steam  organs"  soon  ceased  to  be  a  novelty  and 
in  time  came  to  be  considered  an  expensive  nuisance. 

Of  the  many  old-timers  on  the  Hudson,  the  ancient 
and  odd-looking  steam  ferryboat  Air  Line,  that  has 
been  plying  between  Saugerties  and  Tivoli  since  1857, 
is  entitled  to  the  palm.  For  a  half  century  this  old  boat 
has  been  doing  duty  and  her  crew  have  been  so  long 
with  her  they  may  be  regarded  as  eligible  to  the  ancient 
mariner  class.  Capt.  John  M.  Burnett  has  run  the 
boat  for  twenty-seven  years,  and  Charles  Taylor  who 
began  with  him  as  engineer  kept  his  post  for  twenty- 
two  years  before  he  died  and  was  succeeded  by  George 
Mower  who  is  still  on  duty.  The  deckhand,  James 
Dickson,  began  to  work  on  the  boat  as  a  boy  and  is 
now,  after  ten  years  of  service,  a  grown  man. 

In  the  genus  steamboat,  species  ferry,  one  of  the  most 
interesting  specimens  extant  is  the  old  chain  craft  still 
doing  duty  on  the  creek  at  Rondout.  The  chain 
ferries,  so  numerous  in  the  years  gone  by,  in  some  sec- 


'X   2 


Some  of  the  Old-timers.  29 

tions  of  the  country,  have  nearly  all  disappeared  and 
certainly  the  one  at  Rondout  is  an  antique.  The  boat 
is  named  the  Riverside,  but  is  more  affectionately  al- 
luded to  by  the  natives  as  the  "  Skilly  Pot." 

Three  other  points  of  interest  should  be  noted  in  con- 
nection with  early  steamboat  navigation.  The  first: 
Nicholas  J.  Roosevelt  built  at  Pittsburg,  Pa.,  the  steam- 
boat New  Orleans  in  1811  and  sailed  her  down  the 
Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers  to  the  city,  in  whose 
honor  she  was  named.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the 
wonderful  steamboat  activity  on  the  western  rivers. 
The  second;  a  boat  bearing  the  unique  name  of  Walk- 
in-the-Water,  began  running  on  Lake  Erie  in  1818. 
The  third;  a  sailing  vessel,  the  Savannah,  which  had 
been  altered  and  provided  with  a  steam  engine,  sailed 
from  Savannah  in  1819  for  Liverpool  and  made  the 
trip  across  the  Atlantic  in  twenty-eight  days,  using  both 
sails  and  steam.  She  was  a  side  wheel  paddle  boat  and 
the  first  to  successfully  demonstrate  the  application  of 
steam  to  ocean  navigation.  She  was  so  constructed 
that  her  paddle  wheels  could  be  unshipped  in  case  of 
stormy  weather  and  taken  aboard  the  vessel. 


CHAPTER  IV 

RIVAL   LINES   ON   THE   RIVER 

FOLLOWING  the  successful  introduction  of  steam 
navigation  on  the  Hudson,  came  a  long  and  bitter 
struggle.  Fulton  and  Livingston  had  a  fight  on  their 
hands  from  the  first  to  maintain  the  monopoly  cover- 
ing a  period  of  twenty  years,  given  them  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  State  of  New  York,  with  its  extensions  for 
additional  steamers. 

Not  only  was  the  monopoly  to  steam  navigation  of 
the  river  attacked  and  the  State  law  defied,  a  law  which 
was  plainly  unconstitutional,  but  the  vahdity  of  Fulton's 
patents  was  even  questioned.  Expensive  litigation  fol- 
lowed and  the  battle  between  the  Fulton  and  opposing 
interests  went  on  with  varying  success  for  several  years. 
Chancellor  Livingston,  who  had  much  influence  at 
Albany,  secured  supplementary  legislative  enactments, 
but  the  monopoly  to  the  river  was  never  long  main- 
tained. 

One  of  the  earliest  rivals  for  the  passenger  trade  was 
a  boat  built  by  Fulton  for  service  on  Long  Island  Sound 


Rival  Lines  on  the  River  31 

between  New  York  and  New  Haven,  called  the  Fulton. 
The  following  announcement  of  the  reason  of  her  ap- 
pearance on  the  Hudson  River  has  a  suggestive  reference 
to  the  feeling  of  insecurity  that  possessed  the  public  as 
to  the  navigation  of  the  Sound  following  the  second 
war  with  Great  Britain  in  1812: 

"The  public  are  respectfully  informed  that  the  sub- 
scriber has  commenced  running  the  steamboat  Fulton 
between  the  cities  of  New  York  and  Albany  for  the 
accommodation  of  passengers.  The  boat  was  built  for 
the  purpose  of  plying  between  New  York  and  New 
Haven,  but  will  be  employed  on  the  Hudson  River 
until  the  cessation  of  hostilities  enables  the  proprietors 
to  put  her  on  her  destined  route. 

"The  Fulton  has  good  accommodations  and  is  a 
very  swift  boat.  The  complement  of  passengers  is 
limited  to  60  and  the  price  of  passage  is  therefore  nec- 
essarily raised  to  ten  dollars. 

"  She  will  start  from  Albany  every  Monday  morning 
at  9  o'clock  and  from  New  York  every  Friday  evening 
at  the  same  hour. 

"For  passage  apply  on  board  at  Steam  Boat  dock. 

"Albany,  May  16,  1814.     Elihu  F.  Bunker." 

Ten  dollars  was  a  big  sum  to  pay  for  a  trip  to  Albany 
and  the  Fulton  did  not  make  much  of  an  inroad  on  the 
business  of  the  regular  line. 

With  an  increase  in  the  number  of  boats  built  on 


'.H  Old  Steamboat  Days 

other  plans  than  Fulton's  and  owned  by  other  interests, 
there  eanie  into  existence  rival  lines  competing  for  the 
passenger  and  freight  business  of  the  river.  From  1830 
to  18G0  there  were  lively  times  among  the  steamboat 
men. 

The  fight  over  the  river  monopoly  was  on  in  earnest 
when  a  young  man  who  had  been  running  a  sailboat 
ferry  between  Staten  Island  and  New  York,  began  to 
oppose  the  Fulton-Livingston  interests.  The  young 
man  was  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  afterward  the  "Com- 
modore "  and  founder  of  the  family  of  railroad  million- 
aires of  that  name.  His  sail-ferryboats  had  been  ex- 
changed for  steamboats  and  he  had  made  considerable 
money.  He  entered  into  the  Hudson  River  competi- 
tion with  the  announcement  that  his  service  would 
furnish  better  boats  and  lower  rates.  This  was  what 
the  people  were  looking  for,  and  the  established  lines 
had  to  meet  the  conditions  forced  upon  them. 

There  was  a  great  strife  to  secure  patrons.  The 
town  was  placarded  with  bills  more  gaudy  and  entic- 
ing than  the  pictures  of  a  side  show  at  a  circus.  "  Run- 
ners" for  the  rival  steamboat  lines  made  the  water 
front  a  lively  place.  A  man  or  a  woman  with  a  "  carpet 
bag "  became  the  legitimate  subject  of  capture  for  the 
"  runner's  "  line.  Sometimes  the  man  went  by  one  line 
and  his  satchel  by  another.  Every  inducement  was 
offered  and  nervous  old  ladies  who  were  fearful  of 
bursting  boilers,  were  even  assured  by  these  "  runners  " 


Rival  Lines  on  the  River  33 

that  their  steamboats  had  no  boilers.  The  arts  re- 
sorted to  by  the  "runners"  and  the  amount  of  lung 
power  expended  would  have  put  to  blush  the  efforts  of 
the  "barkers"  at  the  Battery  at  a  later  day  for  the 
rival  steamboat  lines  running  to  Coney  Island. 

The  high  rates  went  down  to  one  dollar  for  the  trip, 
and  eventually  to  ten  cents;  subsequently  in  a  later 
competition  for  passengers,  one  could  go  to  Albany  or 
Troy  without  paying  any  fare,  but  it  is  said  passengers 
had  to  pay  well  for  their  meals  and  sleeping  accom- 
modations. 

"  Commodore  "  Vanderbilt  carried  on  his  competition 
for  Hudson  River  travel  for  nearly  twenty  years.  He 
owned  and  operated  nearly  fifty  steamboats  in  that 
period  and  would  probably  have  continued  in  it,  had 
not  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  in  1848-49 
induced  him  to  seek  what  promised  to  be  a  more 
profitable  field  in  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Ocean  naviga- 
tion, by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

There  was  a  great  tide  of  travel  and  merchandise 
moving  toward  California  in  those  days  and  "  Com- 
modore" Vanderbilt  was  among  those  to  reap  the 
profit.  He  also  established  a  transatlantic  line  and 
made  money  in  that.  Having  amassed  a  fortune  of 
many  millions  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  Hudson 
River  Railroad  which  he  gradually  acquired  and  again 
began  to  threaten  the  interests  of  the  steamboat  men, 
who  had  adjusted  the  business  among  themselves  on 


.St  Old  Steamboat  Days 

a  more  profitable  basis  after  **  Commodore "  Vander- 
bilt's  retirement  from  the  competition.  For  nearly 
fifty  years  this  remarkable  man  was  actively  engaged 
in  building  and  operating  steamboats.  He  supple- 
mented liis  experience  on  the  river  by  building  eleven 
ocean  vessels  and  owning  ten  others  and  about  the  time 
of  his  retirement  from  the  field  of  deep-water  navigation 
gave  the  use  of  his  best  steamship,  the  Vanderbilt,  to 
the  United  States,  in  18G1,  as  the  Civil  War  was  then 
in  progress  and  the  Government  was  sadly  in  need  of 
vessels. 

There  were  other  periods  of  rife  and  bitter  competi- 
tion on  the  river.  Following  the  opening  of  the  Harlem 
and  the  Hudson  River  Railroads,  rates  were  again  cut 
and  one  could  travel  from  New  York  to  Albany  or 
Troy  by  either  boat  or  train  for  less  than  it  cost  to 
reach  midway  points  on  either  system. 

To  meet  the  competition  of  the  railroad  in  March, 
1850,  the  Hendrik  Hudson  and  Manhattan  announced 
a  fifty-cent  rate^to  New  York  from  Albany,  the  Buffalo 
a  twenty-five-cent  rate  and  a  passage  on  the  Kosciusko 
could  be  had  for  six  and  one-quarter  cents. 

Again,  about  1860,  the  rival  lines  on  the  river  opened 
a  ruinous  warfare  of  rates  and  one  could  travel  from 
New  York  to  Albany  for  a  dime  or  without  paying 
anything. 

In  1826  there  were  sixteen  steamboats  on  the  Hudson 
and  the  number  had  increased  to  about  one  hundred 


■!i  .  mm     \^  ^   H  ^  lift 

■lift'-  ^~  '^i 


!♦' 


•'f\ 


♦\\'vt^\\\\ 


Rival  Lines  on  the  River  35 

by  1840,  when  steamboating  reached  the  height  of  its 
glory  and  usefulness. 

Some  of  the  old  companies  operating  at  that  period 
were  the  Union  Line,  the  North  River  Line,  the  Con- 
necticut Line,  the  North  River  Association  Line,  Troy 
Line,  O.  &  D.  Transportation  Co.  and  the  Steam 
Navigation  Co.,  and  later  the  Old  Line,  People's  Line, 
Night  Line,  Eagle  Line  and  the  Day  Line  were  the 
principal  companies  engaged  in  river  transportation. 

Some  idea  of  what  was  doing  in  those  days  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  at  times  no  less  than  seven 
steamboats  left  Albany  for  New  York  on  a  single  day. 
The  New  World,  described  as  a  "  gigantic  specimen  of 
steamboat  architecture"  when  she  appeared,  held  the 
record  for  passengers,  having  taken  up  the  river  one 
thousand,  in  August,  1857. 

The  large  boats  were  coining  money,  even  at  one 
dollar  per  trip.  It  was  estimated  that  with  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  passengers  the  returns  would  show  for 
tickets  $450,  berths  and  staterooms  $320,  from  freight 
$393,  a  total  of  $1,163  from  which  $200,  the  estimated 
expense  of  a  trip,  if  deducted,  would  show  a  clear  profit 
of  $963.  It  was  profit  like  this  that  stimulated  in- 
vestment in  steamboat  enterprises  and  eventuated  in 
ruinous  competition. 

There  was  much  traveling,  more  on  account  of  busi- 
ness than  pleasure.  There  was  neither  telegraph  nor 
telephone  to  overcome  distances  in  a  second's  time  and 


36  Old  Steamboat  Days 

ovon  the  railroads  had  not  yet  made  any  appreciable 
inroads  on  the  river  traffic.  Passengers  traveled  by 
steamboat,  but  much  of  the  freight  was  still  handled 
by  sloops,  (ireat  industrial  trusts  had  not  been  formed 
limiting  the  supply;  the  country  was  prosperous  and 
competition  in  every  line  of  business  activity  con- 
tributetl  to  make  these  the  good  old  days  recalled  by 
many,  who  view  with  concern  the  many  complex 
problems  of  the  industrial  life  of  the  nation  that  are 
now  pressing  for  solution. 


CHAPTER  V 

HOW   THE    GREAT    RIVER    MONOPOLY   WAS    BROKEN 

IT  required  the  brilliant  legal  attainments  of  Daniel 
Webster  and  the  conquering  persistency  of  Cor- 
nehus  Vanderbilt,  to  find  a  way  to  break  the  monopoly 
held  under  the  Fulton  and  Livingston  grant  from  the 
State  of  New  York. 

The  State  of  New  Jersey  defied  the  State  of  New 
York  in  the  controversy,  and  it  was  not  until  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  stepped  in  and  settled  the  dis- 
pute for  all  time,  that  the  atmosphere  was  cleared  and 
the  free  use  of  the  river  and  bay  was  opened  to  steam- 
boats. Incidentally  many  fundamental  questions  of 
Constitutional  Law,  all  new  to  the  young  Republic, 
were  settled,  and  it  did  much  to  establish  the  authority 
of  the  Federal  Government  to  regulate  navigation  and 
other  interstate  relations. 

One  would  never  believe  so  many  important  proposi- 
tions of  Constitutional  Law,  and  much  less  its  relation 
to  breaking  up  the  great  monopoly  of  steam  navigation 
on  the  Hudson,   could   be   found   in  the   misleading 


38  Old  Steamboat  Days 

parties  named  in  a  certain  cause  of  action  in  the  United 
States  Law  Reports,  designated  as  Gibbons  versus 
Ogden. 

Tlie  history  behind  tliis  action  and  the  case  itself  is 
one  of  the  most  interesting  in  the  books,  having  to  do, 
as  it  had,  with  so  many  questions  involved  in  the 
formative  period  of  the  nation.  A  much  more  intelli- 
gent understanding  of  the  rapid  expansion  of  steam- 
boat enterprise  building  on  the  Hudson,  the  establish- 
ment of  rival  lines,  the  investment  of  capital  and  the 
fierce  competition  that  followed  will  be  gained  by 
learning  who  Gibbons  and  Ogden  were  and  how  they 
came  to  represent  the  steamboat  interests  of  two 
States.  To  do  this  one  must  learn  how  the  river 
monopoly  came  to  be  created. 

John  Fitch,  who  was  one  of  the  first  experimenters 
with  steamboats  in  this  country,  had  operated  a  boat 
on  the  Collect  Pond,  the  site  of  which  was  occupied 
by  the  old  Tombs  prison  in  Center  Street,  New  York. 
The  pond  only  covered  about  four  acres  and  his  craft 
was  a  small  rowboat.  So  great  was  the  interest  in  the 
experiment,  however,  he  had  little  difficulty  in  securing 
from  the  Legislature  of  New  York,  in  1787,  the  sole 
and  exclusive  right  to  navigate  vessels  by  steam  in  all 
creeks,  rivers,  bays  and  waters  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  State  for  fourteen  years.  Fitch  having  died  or 
left  the  State  and  his  experiments  having  been  without 
practical  results,  the  Legislature,  in  1798,  passed  a  law 


How  the  Great  River  Monopoly  was  Broken    39 

which  repealed  the  privilege  to  Fitch  and  granted  it  to 
Robert  R.  Livingston,  who  had  meantime  become 
interested  in  the  matter,  for  a  period  of  twenty  years. 
We  have  seen  that  Li\angston's  efforts  were  also  with- 
out results  until  he  had  met  and  become  interested 
with  Fulton.  So  it  came  about  that  the  State  law  was 
again  amended,  in  1803,  to  extend  the  exclusive  privi- 
lege to  both  Livingston  and  Fulton  for  a  similar  period. 
The  trip  of  the  Clermont  to  Albany,  in  1807,  had  de- 
monstrated steam  navigation  to  be  a  success  and  the 
State  of  New  Jersey,  regarding  the  New  York  laws  as 
trespassing  upon  its  sovereignty,  passed  a  statute  that 
same  year  declaring  its  jurisdiction  reached  to  the 
middle  of  the  Hudson  River,  as  far  north  as  the  terri- 
tory of  the  State  extended. 

The  next  year  the  Fulton-Livingston  interests  se- 
cured the  passage  through  the  New  York  Legislature 
of  an  act  extending  the  exclusive  privilege  three  years 
for  each  additional  steamboat  constructed,  the  whole 
period,  however,  not  to  exceed  thirty  years,  and  for- 
bidding any  and  all  persons  from  navigating  with 
steamboats  the  waters  of  the  State  which  under  royal 
grant  were  held  to  reach  to  the  Jersey  shore,  without 
a  Fulton-Livingston  license,  under  penalty  of  for- 
feiture of  the  boat  or  vessel. 

New  Jersey  came  to  the  relief  of  its  citizens  with  an 
act,  in  1811,  declaring  that  New  York  unjustly  claimed 
an  exclusive  jurisdiction  over  the  waters  of  that  State. 


40  Old  Steamboat  Days 

It  was  the  time  for  New  York  to  act,  and  it  did.  In 
the  same  year  it  passed  a  hiw  declaring  foi-feited  any 
vessel  or  boat  using  steam,  found  navigating  against 
the  provisions  of  the  previous  laws  of  the  State  and  a 
means  by  injunction  was  provided  against  removing 
any  such  boat  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State,  that 
had  been  seized.  New  Jersey  could  not  stand  for 
that,  so  it  passed  a  law  in  1813  and  again  in  1818 
passed  other  acts  to  uphold  and  enforce  its  statute  of 
1811.  But  the  Fulton  and  Livingston  interests  went 
on  suing  out  injunctions  and  making  it  quite  as  in- 
effectual for  a  Jersey  man  to  run  a  steamboat  as  it  was 
for  a  New  Yorker,  without  a  license  such  as  was  called 
for  by  the  New  York  statute. 

"Commodore"  Vanderbilt  became  busy  in  1820  in 
trying  to  find  a  way  to  overthrow  the  river  monopoly. 
The  New  Jersey  Legislature  was  only  too  eager  to 
help  and  so  an  act  was  passed  that  year  which  among 
other  things  provided  that  if  any  of  its  citizens  should 
be  "enjoined  or  restrained  by  any  writ  of  injunction 
or  order  by  the  Court  of  Chancery  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  by  virtue  or  under  color  of  any  act  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  that  State,  from  navigating  any  boat  or  vessel 
moved  by  steam  or  fire  belonging  or  to  belong  in  part 
or  in  whole  to  him,  on  the  waters  between  the  ancient 
shores  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey  and  New  York,  the 
plaintiff  or  plaintiffs  in  such  writ  or  order  shall  be  liable 
to  the  person  or  persons  aggrieved  for  all  damages, 


How  the  Great  River  Monopoly  was  Broken    41 

expenses  and  charges  occasioned  thereby,  to  be  recov- 
ered with  triple  costs,"  etc. 

Here  was  just  the  situation  the  persons  attacking 
the  Fulton-Livingston  monopoly  had  sought  to  create. 
Two  sovereign  States  had  passed  laws  in  direct  conflict. 
The  Fulton-Livingston  interests  sued  out  their  injunc- 
tions against  two  boats,  the  Bellona  and  Stoudinger, 
subsequently  known  as  the  Mouse-in-the-Mountain. 
"  Commodore  "  Vanderbilt,  who  was  the  owner,  was 
operating  them  from  the  Battery  in  New  York  State, 
across  the  Bay  and  the  Kill  von  KuU  to  Elizabethtown, 
a  very  short  trip,  the  latter  place  being  in  New  Jersey. 
It  was  indeed  nothing  more  than  a  steamboat  ferry. 
Thomas  Gibbons  was  the  boats'  master,  and  Ogden,  the 
other  party  to  the  litigation  that  ensued,  was  a  citizen 
of  Newark,  N.  J.,  an  ex-Governor  of  the  State,  holding 
a  Fulton-Livingston  license  for  the  same  privilege. 

The  case  in  New  Jersey  came  before  the  Supreme 
Court  of  that  State  in  1822  and  the  Chief  Justice 
(Kirkpatrick)  promptly  held,  after  discussing  State's 
rights  and  Constitutional  privileges,  that  New  York 
had  attempted  to  interfere  with  the  ancient  shores  of 
New  Jersey  and  that  Mr.  Gibbons  was  entitled  to  his 
damages  and  triple  costs  under  the  enactment  of  that 
State. 

The  Chief  Justice  told  the  parties,  however,  it  was  a 
question  that  ought  to  go  to  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  and  to  the  Supreme  they  went.  Gibbons  appear- 


42  Old  Steamboat  Days 

ing  as  the  appellant  from  the  decree  of  the  New  York 
court.  It  was  the  cause  c^lbhre  of  its  day,  not  only 
the  people  of  the  two  States  being  interested,  but  the 
whole  country  having  taken  sides  for  or  against  the 
monopoly  and  there  was  talk  of  an  interstate  war. 
Indeed,  a  clash  of  authority  had  taken  place. 

That  it  was  to  be  a  battle  for  legal  giants  was  early 
manifest,  for  Vanderbilt  and  those  interested  with  him 
in  breaking  the  monopoly  had  retained  Daniel  Webster, 
then  in  the  zenith  of  his  popularity,  and  the  Fulton- 
Livangston  interests,  Mr.  Oakley  and  Mr.  Emmett, 
the  latter  having  been  Fulton's  personal  counsel  and 
friend  for  many  years.  Every  precaution  was  taken  to 
make  the  case  one  of  which  the  Supreme  Court  would 
have  to  take  cognizance,  the  Gibbons  boats  having 
secured  a  license  under  the  act  of  Congress  of  1793, 
governing  vessels  employed  in  the  coasting  trade,  with 
which,  it  Avas  asserted,  the  injunction  orders  of  the 
New  York  State  courts  unwarrantably  interfered.  The 
case  was  not  reached  in  the  Supreme  Court  until  the 
February  term  of  1824. 

Daniel  Webster  in  a  masterly  brief  and  argument 
traversed  the  whole  ground  of  the  dispute  and  con- 
tended that  the  Legislature  of  New  York  had  passed 
laws  which  were  unconstitutional,  inasmuch  as  the 
Federal  Constitution  had  declared  "  Congress  shall 
have  power  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations, 
and   among  the  several   States   and  with  the   Indian 


be 

■J: 


How  the  Great  River  Monopoly  was  Broken    43 

tribes."  Mr.  Webster  argued  with  prevailing  force 
that  the  State  had  attempted  to  usurp  the  specially 
delegated  powers  it  had  given  to  Congress;  that  com- 
merce was  navigation  and  that  the  Federal  regulations 
must  apply. 

He  contended  if  New  York  could  grant  such  a 
monopoly,  it  might  also  grant  another  for  other  de- 
scription of  vessels;  for  instance,  for  all  sloops.  If  it 
could  grant  these  exclusive  privileges  to  a  few  it  could 
grant  them  to  many;  that  is,  it  might  grant  them  to  all 
its  own  citizens  to  the  exclusion  of  everybody  else. 
But  the  waters  of  New  York  State,  insisted  Mr.  Web- 
ster, were  no  more  the  subject  of  exclusive  grants  by 
that  State  than  the  waters  of  other  States  were  the  sub- 
jects of  such  grants  by  those  other  States.  Virginia 
might  well  exercise  over  the  entrance  of  the  Chesapeake 
all  the  power  that  New  York  could  exercise  over  the 
Bay  of  New  York  and  the  waters  on  the  shore. 

But  that  was  not  all.  It  required  no  greater  power  to 
grant  monopoly  of  trade  than  a  monopoly  of  naviga- 
tion. Of  course.  New  York,  if  its  acts  could  be  main- 
tained, might  give  an  exclusive  right  to  entry  for  vessels 
into  her  ports  and  other  States  might  do  the  same. 
The  people  of  New  York  had  a  right  to  be  protected 
against  the  steamboat  monopoly.  The  appellant  had  a 
perfect  right  to  come  from  New  Jersey  to  New  York  in 
a  vessel  owned  by  himself  of  the  proper  legal  descrip- 
tion and  enrolled  and  licensed  according  to  the  law. 


44  Old  Steamboat  Days 

The  Constitution  made  the  law  of  Congress  supreme, 
when  State  laws  came  into  opposition  with  them.  It 
was  not  at  all  material  in  that  view  of  the  case,  whether 
the  law  of  the  State  was  a  law  regulating  commerce, 
a  law  of  police  or  whatever  other  name  or  character  it 
might  be  designated.  If  this  provision  was  incon- 
sistent with  the  act  of  Congress,  they  were  void  so  far 
as  that  inconsistency  extended.  There  were  other  pro- 
visions of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  with 
which  the  law  of  the  State  of  New  York  was  in  conflict. 
It  was  provided  "that  no  State  should,  without  the 
consent  of  Congress,  lay  any  duty  upon  tonnage." 
New  York  had  authorized  Messrs.  Fulton  and  Living- 
ston to  license  navigation  in  the  waters  of  New  York. 
They  gave  licenses  out  on  their  own  terms  and  might 
require  pecuniary  consideration,  or,  having  ascertained 
the  tonnage  of  a  vessel,  regulate  the  amount  of  license 
upon  same.  That  would  be  a  tonnage  duty  and 
clearly  in  conflict  with  the  Constitution.  Mr.  Webster 
also  urged  that  the  Constitution  gave  Congress  the 
power  to  promote  the  progress  of  science  and  useful 
arts,  to  secure  to  authors  and  inventors,  for  a  limited 
time,  an  exclusive  right  to  their  own  writings  and  dis- 
coveries. The  States  might  give  exercise  of  their 
bounty  toward  authors  and  inventors  and  grant  them 
bounties,  but  to  attempt  to  confer  exclusive  grants  as 
a  reward  was  not  a  power  to  be  exercised  by  the  States, 
Much  less  could  they,  under  the  notion  of  conferring 


How  the  Great  River  Monopoly  was  Broken    45 

rewards  in  such  cases,  grant  monopolies  incompatible 
with  the  exercise  of  rights  held  under  the  laws  of  the 
United  States. 

Mr.  Oakley,  for  the  monopoly,  argued  that  the 
power  given  to  Congress  by  the  sovereign  State  of 
New  York  was  limited,  in  that  all  rights  not  delegated, 
were  reserved.  The  State  had  a  right  to  legislate  on  all 
causes  of  concurrent  power,  although  Congress  had  acted 
in  the  same  power  and  upon  the  same  subject-matter. 
The  State  might  make  it  an  offense  to  counterfeit  the 
coin  of  any  foreign  country  within  its  territory.  New 
York  had  provided  for  the  punishment  of  counter- 
feiting as  had  also  Congress,  all  of  which  showed  that 
Congress  considered  the  poAver  to  punish  such  offenses 
as  concurrent.  A  patentee  obtained  nothing  by  his 
grant,  except  an  exclusive  right,  as  it  related  to  the 
Union  instead  of  a  right  limited  to  the  State  together 
with  more  complete  and  certain  remedies  to  protect 
and  enforce  that  right.  If  he  could  not  use  the  thing 
invented  against  the  State  law  before  it  was  patented, 
he  could  not  use  it  after  it  was  patented,  for  his  grant 
conveyed  no  greater  right  than  before  existed.  It  be- 
longed exclusively  to  the  local  State  Legislatures  to 
determine  how  a  man  could  use  his  own  without  injury 
to  his  neighbors.  A  patentee  could  not  give  rights  by 
which  a  patent  could  infringe  the  vested  rights  of  others. 
A  patented  boat  on  a  ferry  could  not  be  used,  the 
exclusive  use  of  which  had  been  granted  by  a  State 


46  Old  Steamboat  Days 

law.  A  restraint  imposed  by  the  laws  of  New  York 
on  tlio  navigation  of  the  waters  of  the  State  was  merely 
an  internal  regulation  of  the  right  to  transit  or  passage 
from  one  part  of  the  State  to  another.  It  was  a  regula- 
tion which,  if  even  indispensable  to  public  safety, 
Congress  could  not  make.  The  power  to  make  it, 
therefore,  must  be  in  the  State.  The  State  law  was,  in 
fact,  only  a  regulation  of  the  internal  trade  and  right 
of  navigation  within  the  territorial  limits  of  the  State. 
The  power  to  regulate  this  was  exclusively  in  the  State. 
The  State  had  exercised  it  in  the  same  manner,  both 
on  land  and  water,  and  the  law  was  valid  although 
incidentally  it  might  affect  the  right  of  intercourse  be- 
tween the  States. 

Mr.  Eramett,  on  the  same  side,  undertook  to  show 
that  New  York  was  not  the  only  State  which  had  passed 
such  laws. 

Massachusetts,  on  February  7,  1815,  granted  to 
J.  L.  Sullivan  a  similar  grant  for  steamboats  on  the 
Connecticut  River,  twenty-eight  years  after  the  ex- 
piration of  his  patent,  which  on  February  11,  1819, 
was  enlarged  for  two  years. 

New  Hampshire,  in  June,  1816,  gave  him  a  similar 
privilege  on  the  Merrimac. 

Pennsylvania,  on  the  26th  of  March,  1813,  gave  a 
similar  right  to  James  Barnes,  from  Wilkes-Barre  to 
Tioga  Point,  on  the  borders  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
Georgia,  on  the  14th  of  November,  1814,  gave  a  similar 


How  the  Great  River  Monopoly  was  Broken    47 

grant  to  S.  Howard  for  all  the  waters  of  that  State  for 
steamboats;  and  by  another  act,  the  19th  of  December, 
1817,  granted  to  a  company  (probably  derived  from 
Howard)  a  similar  right  for  steamboats  for  twenty 
years. 

Tennessee  had  similarly  given  a  right  on  the  Ten- 
nessee River. 

As  Congress  had  no  power  to  regulate  the  internal 
commerce  of  any  State,  none  of  its  regulations  could 
affect  so  much  of  the  exclusive  grant  as  restrained  vessels 
which  were  used  only  within  the  States,  nor  could  it  give 
to  any  man  permission  to  carry  on  any  steamboat  navi- 
gation which  in  its  beginning  and  ending  was  entirely 
within  the  waters  of  the  State,  for  instance,  between 
New  York  and  Albany,  on  Cayuga  Lake,  or  Lake 
Ontario  and  the  St.  Lawrence  or  Niagara  to  Ogdens- 
burg.  The  only  question  was  as  to  navigation  between 
foreign  countries  or  another  State  and  New  York.  If 
the  power  of  Congress  over  commerce  was  exclusive,  it 
must  also  have  exclusive  control  over  the  means  of 
carrying  it  on.  No  State  then  would  be  mad  enough 
to  expend  large  sums  in  building  canals  as  New  York 
was  doing,  susceptible  of  being  used  for  intercourse 
between  the  States  or  foreign  commerce,  if  Congress  had 
the  right  to  regulate  the  navigation  and  vessels  that  were 
the  medium  of  foreign  trade  and  that  between  the 
States.  It  could  not  be  seriously  contended  that  Con- 
gress could  regulate  the  carrying  of  passengers  to  any 


48  Old  Steamboat  Days 

part  of  the  Union  who  are  traveling  to  Ballston, 
Saratoga,  or  any  other  place  for  pleasure,  and  even  if 
the  object  of  their  passage  was  to  trade,  that  would 
not  legalize  the  interference  of  Congress  as  to  the  mode 
of  their  conveyance  from  place  to  place. 

Continuing  Mr.  Emmett  asserted :  "  If  ever  the  day 
should  come  when  representatives  from  beyond  the 
Rocky  Mountains  shall  sit  in  the  National  Legislature, 
if  ever  a  numerous  and  inland  delegation  shall  wield  the 
exclusive  power  of  making  regulations  for  our  foreign 
commerce,  without  community  of  interest  or  knowledge 
of  our  local  circumstances,  the  Union  would  not  stand. 
It  cannot  be  the  ordinance  of  God  or  nature  that  it  should 
stand.  It  had  been  said  by  very  high  authority  that  the 
power  of  Congress  to  regulate  commerce  sweeps  away 
the  whole  subject-matter.  If  so,  it  makes  a  wreck  of 
State  legislation,  leaving  only  a  few  standing  ruins  that 
mark  the  extent  of  the  desolation.  The  position,  how- 
ever, was  not  correct."  .  .  .  The  quarantine  laws 
were  further  appealed  to  to  illustrate  Mr.  Emmett's  posi- 
tion. It  was  held  that  they  were  all  considered  merely  as 
laws  of  pohce.  They  were  laws  of  police  but  also  laws 
of  commerce,  for  such  is  the  nature  of  that  commerce, 
which  it  was  held  must  be  regulated  in  some  manner 
by  Congress,  that  it  enters  into  and  mixes  itself  with 
almost  all  the  concerns  of  life.  The  clause  in  the  Con- 
stitution authorizing  Congress  to  make  laws  respecting 
patents  was   supposed  to   present  another  argument 


WIHii' 

pill 

^^U<^^^ 

-j^    .  m^lpwMPi ' ,'  , '  M 

iHp^^ 

^  AgBK^iy ^'  '' '  1 

Mm 

I^JI^^HIi  1  1 

wg^^^^liL  1 

'^Hi  t' ' 

k^H^Sl 

^BH     K^^^ai 

B|||fi' 

-^^^^ 

jBl|||,{ 

' '  ii^H^^^^  "^    /  Ki'^Ki' '"" '''"""''' 

' — ""^ -^^Bk  ^    ^B^ijl  ^— ^  liB»''aBfi  ^"  ">»'''' 

"■^^Vaiisai^^li  v  ^t  K^Hmr'kTi  ^1 

"^5'     .  y^^jc?  ll^mHSSfl^^^^^^^^BIl ' 

.^^^M^K'iiU' ' 

^^^^^cBB<^^^''"'''^^^^^B^^H''ffl[  llS'r 

j^^^i^mny^ 

How  the  Great  River  Monopoly  was  Broken    49 

against  the  constitutionahty  of  the  State  laws.  There 
was  no  allegation  of  a  patent  or  a  claim  of  anything 
entitled  to  be  protected  by  the  patent  laws,  the  use 
and  enjoyment  of  which  had  been  interfered  with 
by  the  exclusive  grant.  If  the  last  steamboat  laws, 
enacted  since  the  North  River  boats  were  in  operation, 
had,  instead  of  using  a  general  phraseology  forbid  any 
person  to  use  on  the  waters  of  the  State,  steamboats 
constructed  or  made  in  the  same  manner  as  those  made 
by  Fulton  and  Livingston,  or  in  any  manner  before 
known  or  used  or  in  any  manner  invented  by  a  non- 
resident alien,  would  there  be  anything  for  the  patent 
laws  or  power  of  Congress  to  operate  on  in  collision 
thereto  ?  If  not,  then  the  State  laws  were  so  far  good. 
The  power  to  prohibit  the  use  of  patented  things,  either 
generally  or  locally,  must  reside  somewhere.  Could 
Congress  prohibit  the  use  of  locally  injurious,  but 
patented  things  in  the  waters  or  the  cities  or  the  popu- 
lous towns  of  New  York.''  If  not,  because  it  had  no 
power  of  regulation  or  prohibition,  where  did  that 
power  reside .''  If  it  resided  as  it  must  exclusively  in 
the  State  Legislatures  or  subordinate  authorities,  who 
but  their  constitutents  could  inquire  into  the  motives  or 
propriety  or  their  exercise  of  that  power  or  the  extent 
to  which  it  should  be  carried }  A  patent  could  be  se- 
cured for  anything;  if  it  once  issued  from  the  patent 
office  as  full  of  evils  as  Pandora's  box,  if  they  were  as 
new  as  those  that  issued  from  thence,  it  was  above  the 


50  Old  Steamboat  Days 

restraint  and  control  of  the  State  Legislature  and  the 
Legislature  of  the  United  States  and  of  every  human 
authority.  The  State  of  New  York  by  a  patient  and 
forbearing  patronage  of  ten  years  to  Livingston  and 
Fulton  .  .  .  by  the  tempting  inducement  of  its 
proffered  reward  and  by  the  subsequent  liberality  of 
its  contract  had  called  into  existence  the  noblest  and 
most  useful  improvement  of  the  present  day  .  .  . 
she  had  brought  into  noonday  splendor  an  invaluable 
improvement  to  the  intercourse  and  consequent  happi- 
ness of  man  which  without  her  aid  would  perhaps  have 
scarcely  dawned  upon  our  grandchildren.  She  had  not 
only  rendered  this  service  to  her  own  citizens,  but  the 
benefits  of  her  policy  have  spread  themselves  over  the 
whole  Union  .  .  .  and  the  happy  and  reflecting 
inhabitants  of  the  States  .  .  .  might  well  ask  them- 
selves whether  next  to  the  Constitutions  under  which 
they  lived  there  was  a  single  blessing  they  enjoyed^  from 
the  art  and  labor  of  man  greater  than  that  they  had 
derived  from  the  patronage  of  the  State  of  New  York 
to  Robert  Fulton. 

Finally  came  WiUiam  Wirt  of  Virginia,  the  famous 
Attorney-General  of  the  United  States,  amid  the  array 
of  counsel,  with  the  argument  in  support  of  Mr.  Web- 
ster's, that  the  State  law  was  in  conflict  with  powers 
vested  in  Congress  and,  even  if  concurrent,  as  claimed, 
it  was  in  conflict  and,  therefore,  void.  He  asked  the 
court  to  "interpose  its  friendly  hand  and  extirpate  the 


How  the  Great  River  Monopoly  was  Broken    51 

seeds  of  anarchy  which  New  York  had  sown.  The  war 
of  legislation  which  had  already  commenced  will,  ac- 
cording to  its  usual  course,  become  a  war  of  blows. 
Your  country  will  be  shaken  with  civic  strife.  Your 
republican  institutions  will  perish  in  the  conflict,  your 
Constitution  will  fall  and  the  last  hope  of  the  nations 
will  be  gone." 

Mr.  Chief  Justice  John  Marshall  was  quite  equal  to 
the  important  decision  he  was  called  upon  to  render 
in  the  steamboat  case.  In  doing  so,  he  added  one  more 
to  the  important  opinions  he  rendered  in  fixing  fast  and 
sure  the  legal  foundation  the  young  nation  required  to 
make  its  new  and  untested  Constitution  a  workable, 
respected  organic  law.  In  an  opinion  fully  reviewing 
the  important  case  before  him,  and  even  apologizing 
for  its  great  length,  he  held  that  Congress  in  being 
given  the  power  to  regulate  commerce,  was  given  the 
power  to  regulate  navigation.  It  was  as  expressly 
granted,  as  if  the  term  navigation  had  been  added  to  the 
word,  commerce  already  in  the  Constitution.  "But," 
said  he,  "the  power  to  regulate  commerce  does  not 
look  to  the  principle  by  which  boats  were  moved. 
That  power  was  left  to  individual  discretion.  .  .  . 
The  act  demonstrates  the  opinion  of  Congress  that 
steamboats  may  be  enrolled  and  licensed  in  common 
with  vessels  using  sails.  They  are,  of  course,  entitled  to 
the  same  privileges  and  can  no  more  be  restrained 
from  navigating  waters  and  entering  ports,  which  are 


52  Old  Steamboat  Days 

free  to  such  vessels,  than  if  they  were  wafted  on  their 
voyage  by  the  winds  instead  of  being  propelled  by  the 
agency  of  fire.  The  one  clement  may  be  as  legitimately 
used  as  the  other,  for  every  commercial  purpose  au- 
thorized by  the  laws  of  the  river,  and  the  act  of  a  State 
inhibiting  the  use  of  either  to  any  vessel,  having  a 
license  under  the  act  of  Congress,  comes,  we  think,  in 
direct  collision  with  that  act." 

This  opinion  of  the  Chief  Justice,  supported  as  it  was 
by  a  concurring  opinion  on  some  additional  grounds  by 
Mr.  Justice  Johnson,  rang  a  death-knell  to  the  Fulton- 
Livingston  monopoly  on  the  Hudson  River  and  New 
York  Bay.  The  decree  which  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  issued  declared  "the  several  laws  of  the 
State  of  New  York  wliich  prohibit  vessels  licensed  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  from  navigat- 
ing the  waters  of  the  State  of  New  York,  by  means  of 
fire  or  steam,  repugnant  to  the  Constitution  and  void." 

It  was  certainly  a  great  victory.  The  battle  had  been 
fought  for  years.  Fulton  had  been  dead  nine  years  and 
it  was  only  the  Livingston  contingent  that  witnessed 
the  overthrow  of  the  monopoly  that  had  been  enjoyed 
for  so  long  a  period.  We  have  already  noted  how 
promptly  capital  became  interested  in  steamboat  en- 
terprises and  how  the  rivers  became  crowded  with 
navigation  which  continued  for  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
until  the  steam  railroads  began  to  dispute  with  the 
river  craft  for  both  the  passenger  and  freight  trade. 


CHAPTER  VI 


STEAMBOAT   EVOLUTION 


A  RAPID  evolution  in  steamboat  construction  fol- 
lowed the  breaking  of  the  great  river  monopoly. 
The  boat  builders,  freed  from  the  domination  of  the 
Fulton-Livingston  interests,  were  quick  to  develop  new 
ideas  that  before  had  no  encouragement  from  capital, 
which  had  been  debarred  from  entering  that  particular 
field  of  enterprise. 

The  shipyards  of  New  York  and  Greenpoint  and 
along  the  Hudson  were  more  than  busy  with  the  large 
number  of  boats  vmder  construction,  and  the  activity 
in  this  line  continued  for  many  years. 

Some  of  the  builders  of  the  larger  boats  were  Henry 
Eckford,  Brown  &  Bell,  Blossom,  Smith  &  Dimon, 
George  CoUyer,  William  H.  Brown  of  New  York, 
C.  Bergh,  Devine  &  Burtis,  John  Enghs,  William 
Capes,  Lawrence  &  Sneden,  E.  S.  Whitlock  of  Brook- 
lyn, M.  S.  Allison  of  Jersey  City,  William  Brown  of 
Hyde  Park,  Mr.  Kenyon  of  Albany,  Morton    &  Ed- 


;)4  Old  Steamboat  Days 

moiuLs  aiui  Van  Loan  &  Magee  of  Athens  and  Marvel 
&  Company  of  Newburgh. 

Robert  McQueen  and  James  P.  Allaire  built  nearly 
all  the  engines  for  the  river  boats  constructed  before 
IS.'JO,  but  those  for  the  Sivalloir,  Rochester  and  other 
famous  boats  of  that  period  were  from  the  West  Point 
Foundry,  a  plant  noted  for  its  output  of  machinery. 
James  Cunningham,  Hogg  &  Delamater,  Fletcher, 
Harrison  &  Company,  T.  F.  Secor  &  Company  and 
the  Neptune  Iron  Works  were  the  most  active  producers 
of  steamboat  engines  during  the  forties  and  fifties. 

Following  the  example  set  by  Fulton  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  boiler  for  the  Clermont,  the  boilers  of 
all  the  best  boats  were  built  of  copper  as  iron  was 
found  to  be  so  liable  to  burst,  and  this  fact  made  the 
construction  of  new  boats  very  costly.  The  Clermont's 
boiler  weighed  4,399  pounds  and  at  2s.  2d.  a  pound 
cost  £476.  lis.  2d.  as  is  carefully  noted  by  Mr.  Fulton 
in  his  cash  account  covering  the  expenses  of  building 
this  first  steamboat.  The  boiler  of  the  Chancellor  Liv- 
ingston weighed  44,000  pounds  and  that  of  the  James 
Kent  60,000  pounds,  which  at  recent  rates  would  have 
made  the  copper  in  the  boiler  alone  worth  nearly 
$15,000.  As  it  was,  the  Kent's  boilers  were  worth 
nearly  one-third  of  the  cost  of  the  boat. 

It  was  not  until  1830  that  tubular  boilers  were  in- 
troduced on  the  boats,  the  Novelty  being  the  first  to 
have  that  distinction,  and  it  was  some  ten  years  later 


Steamboat  Evolution  55 

that  the  burning  of  anthracite  coal  under  the  boilers 
was  successfully  introduced  by  Isaac  Newton  on  the 
North  and  South  America  and  the  expense  of  fuel  was 
cut  down  one-half.  The  large  wood-burning  boilers  had 
required  a  prodigal  expenditure  of  cordwood,  which  also 
demanded  a  large  amount  of  deck  room  for  stowage,  and 
the  introduction  of  hard  coal  fuel  was  considered  one  of 
the  greatest  advancements  made  in  steamboat  building. 

Another  of  Isaac  Newton's  successful  experiments 
was  a  small  boat,  the  Balloon,  built  in  1839.  She  was 
one  hundred  and  sixty  feet  in  length  and  eighteen  feet 
beam,  but  was  very  fast,  having  extra  large  paddle 
wheels  for  her  size. 

He  also  designed  the  Isaac  Newton  in  1846  and  the 
New  World  in  1847  and  they  ran  for  several  years  as 
day  boats.  In  1855,  however,  both  were  converted 
into  night  boats,  the  latter  being  lengthened  some  sixty 
feet  and  a  double  tier  of  staterooms  added.  When 
these  two  boats  appeared  after  their  alterations,  New 
Yorkers  opened  their  eyes,  and  they  were  called  float- 
ing palaces.  Newton  had  introduced  the  grand  saloon 
extending  through  two  decks  and  surrounded  with 
galleries.  The  New  World  was  fitted  up  with  Corin- 
thian columns  and  trim  and  the  Newton  in  Gothic. 
The  saloons  were  lighted  with  gas,  the  cabin  furnish- 
ings were  elaborate  and  in  many  respects  nothing 
approaching  in  elegance  the  two  new  night  boats  had 
ever  before  been  seen  afloat.     The  many  new  accom- 


56  Old  Steamboat  Days 

inoilalions  that  these  boats  alforded  travelers  not  only 
made  a  distinctive  type  for  river  boats  which  has  since 
been  closely  followed,  but  did  nuuh  to  establish  the 
popularity  of  the  line  with  which  they  were  identified 
and  which  has  since  been  largely  retained.  The  Neiv 
World  continued  in  the  service  until  her  mishap  in 
1861  and  the  Newton  until  she  burned  in  December, 
1863. 

As  early  as  1844  there  was  an  iron  hull  steamer  on 
the  river  named  the  Iron  Witch.  She  was  subsequently 
rebuilt  and  named  the  Erie.  The  hull  and  engines 
were  both  constructed  by  Hogg  &  Delamater  of  New 
York.  She  was  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  long 
and  twenty-seven  feet  beam.  She  ran  from  New  York 
to  Albany.  It  was  not  until  within  a  comparatively 
short  time  that  any  further  attempts  were  made  to 
introduce  iron  or  steel  into  the  hull  construction  of  the 
river  boats.  All  the  recent  additions  to  the  river  fleet 
have,  however,  steel  hulls  and  water-tight  bulkheads. 

The  boats  of  the  Fulton  type  were  built  with  their 
boilers  well  down  in  the  hull  of  the  boat,  but  in  1826, 
the  New  Philadelphia  appeared  with  her  boilers  built 
on  her  guards,  a  form  of  construction  that  prevailed 
for  many  years. 

Many  still  regard  the  old  boats,  such  as  the  Mary 
Powell  and  Dean  Richmond,  more  picturesque,  afi'ord- 
ing  glimpses  of  the  stokers  tossing  the  fuel  into  the 
fiery  furnaces,  than    the  newer  boats  which  have  re- 


The  De  Witt  Clixtox 

Which  ran  with  a  sister  boat,  the  Victory,  IjetweeTi  New  York  and 
Albany.     From  a  dra-ning  l>y  S.   W.  Stanton 


VLagdsi,,    ^=---" 


The  Champi^vin 

KnowTi  as  a  "Four  Piper."     She  liad  four  boilers,  two  engines  and 

two  walking  beams.     Reproduced  by  permission  from 

"American   Steam  Vessels" 


Steamboat  Evolution  57 

verted  to  the  type  of  boats  with  the  boilers  down  in  the 
hold  of  the  vessel.  It  is  not  at  all  likely,  however,  that 
any  more  steamers  will  be  built  of  that  variety,  as  the 
modern  boats  afford  much  more  deck  room  than  those 
of  the  other  construction. 

The  propeller  type  of  steamboat  has  never  attained 
much  popularity  on  the  Hudson  River,  though  there 
have  been  several  excellent  specimens  of  that  class  in 
service  and  some  smart  boats  of  that  description  of 
comparatively  recent  construction  are  now  running  on 
regular  lines.  They  are  apparently  too  narrow  in 
beam  to  afford  an  opportunity  for  lofty  construction, 
grand  saloons  and  imposing  cabin  vistas,  which  the 
public  seem  to  desire  in  traveling  on  the  river. 

All  of  the  old  boats  were  stiffened  and  hulls  made 
to  carry  the  enormous  load  of  engines  and  boilers  by 
resorting  to  a  "hog  frame."  This  was  a  framework  of 
heavy  timbers,  built  up  truss  fashion  to  which  lifting 
rods  were  attached.  These  heavy  "hog  frames"  are 
no  longer  resorted  to  in  modern  built  boats  and  the 
trusses  are  entirely  out  of  sight,  giving  the  newer  ves- 
sels a  much  neater  and  smarter  appearance. 

With  the  advance  in  mechanical  appliances  came 
the  steam  steering  devices,  rendering  it  unnecessary 
to  have  four  stalwart  quartermasters  to  handle  the 
big  double  steering  wheels  in  the  pilot  houses  of  the 
larger  steamers;  electric  dynamos  for  lights  supplanted 
the  cumbersome  gas  machines  that  were  in  turn  an 


58  Old  Steamboat  Days 

advaiu'o  on  the  kerosene  eabin  lights,  and  feathering 
wheels  have  made  it  possible  to  so  reduce  the  diameter 
of  the  paddles,  that  it  is  now  possible  to  walk  the  length 
of  the  lower  deck  without  climbing  over  the  crank 
shaft  or  "  ducking  "  to  go  under  it. 

The  evolution  of  the  steamboat  from  the  primitive 
Clermont,  on  which  Fulton  sailed  up  the  Hudson  one 
hundred  years  ago,  to  the  boats  that  now  daily  ply 
the  river,  affording  every  convenience  to  the  passen- 
gers to  be  found  in  a  first-class  hotel  on  land,  is  truly 
wonderful. 


CHAPTER  VII 


OLD    RIVER   CAPTAINS 


THE  captain  of  a  river  steamer  in  the  old  days  and 
to-day  is  by  far  the  most  important  man  on  the 
boat.  He  must  be  a  trusty,  experienced  man  and 
should  be  at  all  times  agreeable  to  the  passengers. 
Those  on  the  Hudson  have  been  for  the  most  part  men 
of  this  character  and  many  became  popular  with  the 
traveling  public. 

Before  the  days  of  a  la  carte  restaurants  on  the  boats, 
the  captain  had  his  table  in  the  dining  saloon,  and  the 
dinner  hour  aboard  the  steamboat  was  one  of  the 
features  of  the  trip.  Under  the  present  regulations  the 
captains,  though  always  on  duty  and  men  of  character 
and  ability,  are  not  as  much  in  evidence  to  the  average 
passenger  as  in  the  old  days. 

Capt.  Samuel  Jenkins  commanded  the  Clermont 
after  she  was  renamed  the  North  River,  in  1808,  the 
Car  of  Neptune  was  in  command  of  Captain  Roorback 
in  1810  and  the  Paragon,  in  1813,  was  in  charge  of 
Captain  Wiswall.      These  men  were,  accordingly,  the 


60  Old  Steamboat  Days 

pioneer  steainhoat  captains  of  the  river.  They  have 
been  followed  by  many  worthy  successors,  in  whose 
char<];e  millions  of  passcnjj;ers  have  traveled  in  safety 
anil  comfort. 

Some  of  the  captains  on  the  steamers  in  the  thirties 
and  forties  were  H.  Moore  of  the  Olive  Branch, 
Fountain  of  the  Niagara  and  C.  Benton  of  the  William 
Penn,  on  the  Union  Line;  Captain  Cochran  of  the 
Chancellor  Livingston,  T.  Wiswall  of  the  James  Kent, 
S.  Wiswall  of  the  Richmond  and  Benton  of  the  Saratoga, 
on  the  North  River  Line;  Captain  Bartholomew  of  the 
Hudson,  on  the  Connecticut  Line;  R.  G.  Cruttenden 
of  the  Constellation  and  Wiswall  of  the  Constitution, 
on  the  North  River  Association  Line.  Capt.  D.  Peck 
sailed  the  Swift  Sure  and  Captain  Seymour  the  Com- 
merce, of  the  Steam  Navigation  Company ;  Captain  Peck 
the  Henry  Eckford  and  Captain  Drake  the  Srm,  of  the 
O.  &  D.  Line;  while  Captain  Sherman  had  the  Chief 
Justice  Marshall  and  Captain  Fitch  the  New  London, 
of  the  Troy  Line. 

Captain  Cruttenden  was  one  of  the  last  survivors  of 
this  class  and  when  in  command  of  the  old  Constella- 
tion he  used  to  boast  he  never  lost  a  trip  or  a  life,  had 
made  one  thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty-two  trips 
with  the  old  boat  and  carried  over  172,000  passengers. 

Most  of  the  early  river  captains  reached  a  hearty 
old  age.  Captain  Bunker,  who  ran  the  Fulton  up  the 
Hudson  during  the  war  of  1812,  lived  until  he  was 


PS  rt 


Old  River  Captains  61 

seventy-five  years  of  age,  dying  in  1847,  and  must  have 
rejoiced  to  note  the  great  development  in  an  industry 
in  which  he  was  a  pioneer.  Another  veteran  of  the 
river,  Capt.  Samuel  Wiswall,  lived  to  be  sixty-three 
years  old  and  died  in  New  York  in  1836.  He  is  buried 
in  Hudson. 

Among  the  river  captains  of  1847  were  Capt.  A. 
Gorham,  commanding  the  Troy;  Capt.  H.  J.  Kellogg, 
the  Niagara;  Capt.  W.  W.  Tupper,  the  Columbia; 
Capt.  R.  B.  Macy,  the  Empire;  Capt.  W.  H.  Peck,  the 
Isaac  Newton  ;  Capt.  R.  G.  Cruttenden,  the  Hendrik 
Hudson;  Capt.  R.  H.  Furey,  the  North  America; 
Capt.  Thomas  N.  Hulse,  the  South  America;  Capt. 
G.  O.  Tupper,  the  Alida;  Capt.  A.  DeGroot,  the  Roger 
Williams;  Capt.  J.  S.  Odell,  the  Columbus;  Capt. 
Samuel  Johnson,  the  Thomas  Powell;  Capt.  Charles 
Halstead,  the  Superior  and  Capt.  John  Samuels,  the 
Emerald. 

Many  odd  characters  were  to  be  found  among  the 
old  captains.  Of  one  it  is  told  he  used  to  boast  he  paid 
one  hundred  dollars  to  bury  his  wife  and  it  was  worth 
every  cent  of  it!  He,  however,  was  an  exception  to 
the  generally  good  humored  river  captains  and  never 
came  to  the  dignity  of  commanding  a  passenger  boat. 
He  was  a  mighty  good  navigator,  however,  and  had  the 
reputation  of  putting  things  through  in  spite  of  wind 
or  weather. 

Captain  Houghton  of  the  old  Rochester  was  one  of  the 


62  Old  Steamboat  Days 

greatest  charaeters  among  tlie  old  captains.  He  was 
familiarly  known  as  "I'ug"  Houghton,  his  nose  sug- 
gested the  cognomen,  and  he  was  a  great  story-teller. 
He  was  a  stage  driver  in  Vermont  when  a  younger  man 
and  some  of  liis  tales  of  the  road  were  hair-raisers.  He 
used  to  tell  of  frightening  off  some  robbers  at  a  wayside 
tavern  with  a  brass  candlestick  which  he  held  up  as  a 
pistol,  and,  as  if  to  convince  all  doubters,  he  used  to 
say,  in  the  morning  the  heels  of  two  boots  were  found 
on  the  doorsill,  torn  off  the  bold  marauders  footwear 
as  the  captain  had  jammed  the  door  to  upon  them. 
"Pug"  Houghton  always  had  a  knot  of  passengers 
about  him  on  the  river  boats  as  he  recounted  his  ex- 
periences on  the  high  seas,  though  there  were  those 
who  claimed  he  never  sailed  beyond  Sandy  Hook  in  all 
his  life. 

"  Uncle  "  Daniel  Drew,  who  had  two  steamboats,  and 
a  theological  seminary  in  New  Jersey  named  after  him, 
was  an  able  financier  and  a  good  business  manager  in 
general.  He  was  greatly  surprised  on  a  certain  occasion 
to  find  one  of  his  captains  taking  a  drink  at  the  bar 
while  the  boat  was  running.  The  captain  was  equally 
surprised  at  being  found  at  the  bar  by  "  Uncle  "  Daniel. 

Capt. was,  however,  a  good  bluff  and  held  his 

ground,  talking  business  as  he  drank  his  whiskey  and 
in  the  presence  of  the  owner  of  the  line  planked  down 
a  quarter  on  the  bar  for  the  drink. 

"What,"   said   Mr.    Drew  to  the   captain,   in  sur- 


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Old  River  Captains  63 

prise,  "do  you  have  to  pay  for  your  drinks  on  this 
boat?" 

"Always,"  replied  the  captain,  without  the  quiver 
of  an  eyelash.  "Fact  is,"  said  he,  "Mr.  Drew,  I  find 
it  the  best  means  of  interposing  a  most  desirable  re- 
straint on  natural  tendencies." 

"Uncle"  Daniel  left  the  captain  quite  satisfied  he 
was  a  very  moderate  drinker,  if  he  had  to  pay  steam- 
boat prices  for  drinks,  but  had  the  bartender  not  sought 
out  the  captain  and  restored  the  quarter  of  a  dollar 
before  the  end  of  that  particular  trip,  the  chances  are 
ten  to  one  he  would  have  lost  his  job. 

One  of  the  best  known  river  captains  was  Capt.  A.  L. 
Anderson  who  had  the  Mary  Powell  built  for  him  and 
commanded  her  for  years.  She  was  not  only  the 
smartest  boat  on  the  river  in  her  day,  but  has  always 
been  a  "lucky"  boat,  never  having  met  with  a  serious 
accident.  She  lost  one  of  her  smokestacks  in  a  big 
blow  in  the  Highlands  on  one  of  her  trips,  many  years 
ago,  but  is  said  to  have  finished  her  trip  on  time.  She 
was  owned  for  years  by  the  Anderson  family,  but  was 
recently  purchased  by  the  Day  Line.  There  is  still  a 
Captain  Anderson  on  board  of  her,  however.  He  is 
A.  E.  Anderson,  a  son  of  the  original  captain,  and  as  he 
has  been  running  the  Powell  for  over  tliirty  years  him- 
self, is  in  the  veteran  class. 

Capt.  S.  J.  Roe,  who  has  commanded  the  Rip  Van 
Winkle,  Drew,  Dean  Richmond  and  Adirondack  in  his 


64  Old  Steaiiihoat   Days 

day.  is  still  livinj;,  hale  and  lioarty,  over  eighty  years 
of  aj^o,  in  Albany,  N.  Y.  His  memory  goes  back  to 
the  days  of  the  Swallow  in  184.'),  and  he  took  a  party 
of  excursionists  down  the  river  in  the  liclle  to  view  the 
wreck  of  the  old  boat.  Captain  Post,  who  ran  the  St. 
John,  has  been  dead  for  a  number  of  years  and  so  has 
Capt.  "Dave"  Hitchcock  who  put  the  Chauncey 
Vibhard  through  by  daylight  and  retained  his  popu- 
larity as  a  captain  as  long  as  he  ran  upon  the  river. 

The  captains  alone  should  not  be  remembered  of 
the  great  steamboat  days  of  the  thirties,  forties  and 
fifties.  The  times  developed  many  engineers,  men  of 
resource  and  ingenuity,  who  made  their  boats  jump 
through  the  water  under  the  impulse  of  every  pound 
of  steam  that  could  be  crowded  on  the  boilers,  in  the 
great  efforts  to  make  records  for  speed.  Many  of  the 
older  men,  on  the  decline  of  steam  navigation,  follow- 
ing the  opening  of  the  railroads,  took  to  the  deep  water 
business  and  became  chief  engineers  on  ocean  steam- 
ships and  it  would  be  interesting,  indeed,  if  one  were 
able,  to  follow  the  old-timers  of  the  starting  bar  in 
their  wanderings  from  their  river  habitat. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


FAST   TIME   ON   THE    RIVER 


NO  sooner  had  the  Clermont  made  it  possible  to  re- 
duce the  time  of  the  journey  to  Albany  to  thirty- 
two  hours,  than  the  steamboat  builders  began  to  at- 
tempt to  make  a  further  reduction. 

Each  succeeding  steamer  cut  down  the  time  of  the 
passage.  In  1817  it  had  been  reduced  to  eighteen 
hours  and  in  1826  the  Constellation  and  Constitution 
had  made  the  trip  to  Albany  in  fifteen  hours.  By  1836 
a  new  boat,  the  North  America,  had  cut  it  down  to  ten 
hours  and  the  improvement  went  steadily  on  until  the 
Chauncey  Vibhard,  in  1864,  made  it  in  an  even  seven 
hours,  beginning  and  finishing  the  trip  in  daylight, 
which  had  long  been  the  ambition  of  the  steamboat 
captains.  Now  the  new  Hendrick  Hudson  of  the  Day 
Line  leaves  New  York  at  8.30  a.  m.,  makes  nine  land- 
ings, arrives  at  Albany  at  5.30  with  the  regularity  of  a 
railroad  time  table  and  could,  if  pushed,  do  a  great 
deal  better. 

The  improvement  in  time  will  be  readily  appreciated 


66 


Old  Steamboat  Days 


hours 

minutes 

M 

— 

18 

— 

15 

— 

10 

— 

7 

45 

7 

43 

7 

30 

7 

42 

6 

50 

6 

42 

l)v  tho  appended  statement  of  the  performances  of  the 
old-tinu'rs  on  tho  run  to  Albany: 

1807  Clermont 

1817  Chancellor  Livingston 

1826  Constellation 

1836  North  America 

1849  Alida      . 

1851  New  World    . 

1852  Francis  Skiddy 
1860  Armenia 
1862  Daniel  Drew 
1864  Chauncey  Vibbard 

The  Mary  Powell,  built  in  1861,  many  times  recon- 
structed and  improved  and  still  running,  was  for  years 
conceded  to  be  the  queen  of  the  river  steamers  in 
point  of  speed.  She  averages  twenty  miles  an  hour  at 
all  times,  and  has  been  pushed  to  twenty-six  miles. 

In  1884,  the  steam  yacht  Stilletto,  built  entirely  for 
speed  and  fresh  from  the  hands  of  her  builders,  the 
Herreshoffs  of  Bristol,  R.  I.,  tried  to  wrest  the  laurels 
from  the  old  boat  and  succeeded  bv  a  narrow  margin. 
On  June  10th  in  a  race  of  thirty  miles  she  beat  the 
Powell  by  two  miles,  covering  the  distance  in  one  hour 
and  fifteen  minutes.  It  was  not  a  bad  showing,  how- 
ever, for  the  old  river  queen  and  her  owners  have 
always  claimed  she  could  have  done  much  better  had 
she  been  put  into  first  class  condition  for  the  race. 


6' 


Fast  Time  on  the  River  67 

Similar  claims  were  made  for  the  Stilletto,  her  builders 
claiming  twenty-seven  miles  an  hour  for  their  boat. 
The  Stilletto  set  low  in  the  water  so  as  to  present  as 
httle  surface  for  wind  resistance  as  possible.  She  was 
somewhat  of  the  same  type  as  the  Vamoose,  another 
boat  built  for  speed  in  later  years.  Both  were  the  fore- 
runners in  a  degree  of  the  motor  boats  now  so  popular. 

This  special  form  of  construction  had  been  at- 
tempted, however,  many  years  before.  Burden  built 
a  cigar-shaped  boat  which  he  called  Helen.  Though 
it  was  expected  she  would  be  very  speedy,  she  turned 
out  a  failure  and  was  soon  abandoned. 

In  the  attempt  to  turn  out  fast  boats  and  cut  down 
the  time  of  the  river,  some  boats  with  four  smoke- 
stacks and  as  many  boilers,  with  two  engines  and  two 
walldng  beams  were  built.  The  Erie  and  Champlaiji 
were  "four  pipers,"  but  they  did  not  realize  the  ex- 
pectations of  their  builders.  Even  at  this  late  date  the 
Albany  and  New  York  of  the  Day  Line  only  boast  of 
three  smokestacks.  The  improvement  in  speed  has 
been  secured  with  more  perfectly  constructed  ma- 
chinery and  feathering  paddle  wheels,  than  anything 
else. 

The  old  captains  were  frequently  given  to  speeding 
their  boats,  and  many  tales  are  told  in  the  pilot  houses 
and  engine  rooms  to  this  day  of  the  old  craft  that 
made  sprints  in  order  to  hold  the  record  of  the  smartest 
boat  on  the  river. 


68  Old  Steamhoaf  Days 

When  Hudson  River  captains  raced  their  boats  they 
did  it  for  all  they  were  worth.  Trips  that  could  be 
made  with  eighteen  cords  of  wood  and  twenty-five 
pounds  of  steam,  would  call  for  twenty-five  cords  of 
wood  and  sixty  pounds  of  steam,  if  the  other  boat  was 
a  good  one  and  the  race  was  at  all  close.  The  steam 
gauges  were  plugged  and  the  safety  valves  were  weighted 
down  so  that  the  boiler  pressure  frequently  became 
threefold  what  it  should  be. 

In  the  fall  of  1836,  the  Swallow  and  the  Roch- 
ester had  a  memorable  race,  starting  from  Jersey  City 
at  4  p.  M.,  November  8th,  and  it  was  a  hot  one.  The 
boats  were  within  a  short  distance  from  each  other  all 
the  way  up  the  river,  with  the  tide  against  them.  The 
Swallow^s  engine  became  disabled  near  Hudson  and 
she  slowed  down  for  a  few  moments  and  then  dashed 
ahead  again,  but  the  Rochester  reached  the  Overslaugh 
Bar,  five  miles  below  Albany,  first,  in  eight  hours  and 
fifty-seven  minutes,  and  the  Swallow  in  nine  hours  and 
two  minutes,  just  five  minutes  behind  her  rival.  Though 
the  race  was  the  Rochester's  it  was  generally  admitted 
that  the  Swallow  was  the  better  boat. 

The  North  America  and  the  Champlain  were  always 
in  for  a  race  whenever  their  sailing  hours  permitted  of 
it,  and  each  boat  had  its  enthusiastic  backers,  for  the 
passengers  generally  became  as  much  interested  in 
these  river  contests,  as  the  captains  themselves. 

The  Columbia,  a  new  boat,  made  her  appearance  in 


Fast  Time  on  the  River  69 

1849  and  immediately  demonstrated  to  the  older  craft 
on  the  river,  she  was  to  be  reckoned  veith.  Her  spurts 
with  the  North  America  were  among  the  exciting 
brushes  of  the  period  and  she  crowded  the  older  boat 
to  the  rear,  making  the  run  to  Hudson,  where  she  be- 
longed, in  eight  hours  and  a  quarter. 

The  Kosciusko  and  Telegraph  were  always  pushing 
one  another  for  the  record.  Many  times  they  tried 
conclusions  and  when  a  race  between  the  two  was  on, 
it  mattered  not  if  a  score  or  more  passengers  were 
waiting  at  one  of  the  announced  landings,  the  boats 
rushed  by,  leaving  the  hapless  people  on  the  dock,  so 
great  was  the  rivalry  between  the  two  captains.  The 
Telegraph  eventually  proved  the  better  boat  and  kept 
the  record  until  a  newer  vessel  sent  the  old  speeder  to 
the  rear. 

The  rivalry  for  the  speed  record  became  so  great 
between  two  of  the  boats,  the  Oregon,  owned  by  George 
Law,  and  the  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  owned  by  "  Com- 
modore ' '  Vanderbilt,  then  running  on  Long  Island 
Sound,  that  a  race  for  $1,000  a  side  was  arranged  be- 
tween them,  which  took  place  on  the  Hudson  River 
on  June  1,  1847.  The  Vanderbilt  was  a  new  boat. 
The  race  started  at  the  Battery  and  both  boats  got 
away  at  eleven  o'clock,  a  great  throng  of  people  being 
on  hand  to  witness  the  contest.  For  thirty  miles  up 
the  river  the  boats  kept  side  by  side,  but  the  Oregon 
passed  the   Vanderbilt  as  she  approached  the   stake 


70  Old  Steamboat  Days 

boat  ofT  Ossining  and  was  half  a  length  ahead  at 
that  point.  In  passing  the  Vanderhili,  the  Oregon  was 
bumped  by  her  rival  and  damaged  her  wheelhouse 
considerably.  On  the  way  down  the  river  the  Oregon  s 
coal  gave  out,  but  the  captain  and  crew  resorted  to 
tactics  that  had  been  followed  before,  in  the  days  of 
exciting  steamboat  racing.  The  woodwork  of  the 
berths,  chairs,  benches,  furniture  of  staterooms  and 
everything  else  that  would  burn  was  put  under  the 
boilers  to  keep  up  steam.  She  finished  the  race  at  the 
Battery  about  twelve  hundred  feet  ahead  of  the  Van- 
derhili, having  covered  the  seventy  miles  in  three  hours 
and  fifteen  minutes  with  the  tide  against  her  going 
north  and  with  her  on  the  return.  The  owners  of  the 
Oregon  got  the  $1,000  stake  and  possibly  expended 
more  than  that  restoring  the  joiner  work  on  their  boat. 

The  Alida  and  the  Hendrik  Hudson  had  a  great 
race  from  New  York  to  Albany  in  1849.  The  first 
named  reached  Albany  at  ^.55  p.  m.,  having  left 
New  York  at  7.00  a.  m.,  made  one  landing  and  beat 
the  Hudson  by  fifteen  minutes,  both  boats  having  an 
ebb  tide  all  the  way  up  the  river. 

Captain  DeGroot  of  the  Reindeer  would  never  admit 
there  was  a  boat  on  the  river  that  could  pass  him  and 
he  was  frequently  called  upon  to  prove  it,  which  he  did 
to  the  discomfiture  of  his  rivals.  The  Henry  Clay 
was  designed  to  beat  her,  but  never  did.  The  New 
World,  with  her  enormous  piston  stroke  of  fifteen  feet 


Fast  Time  on  the  River  71 

which  has  never  been  equaled,  though  fourteen  feet 
strokes  were  not  uncommon,  was  thought  to  be  a 
match  for  the  Reindeer,  and  she  proved  to  be,  though 
Captain  DeGroot  would  never  admit  it,  always  claiming 
something  went  wrong  with  the  machinery  when  he 
found  the  other  boat  was  pulling  away  from  him. 

The  St.  John  wrested  the  laurels  from  the  Vanderbilt 
in  1863  and  in  the  same  year  the  new  day  boat  Chauncey 
Vibbard  made  Albany  in  seven  and  a  half  hours,  which 
she  cut  down  the  year  following  to  six  hours  and  forty- 
two  minutes. 

Steamboat  racing  on  the  Hudson  virtually  came  to 
an  end  in  1852,  when  the  Steamboat  Inspection  Bill, 
passed  by  Congress,  became  a  law.  It  was  well  racing 
was  made  unlawful,  for  it  had  developed  recklessness 
and  a  disregard  for  the  safety  and  convenience  of  pas- 
sengers. Then,  too,  bursting  boilers  were  of  too  fre- 
quent occurrence  and  there  was  good  reason,  though 
we  are  apt  to  smile  at  their  fears  with  our  experience 
in  new  and  improved  mechanical  devices — for  sensible 
people  to  prefer  traveling  on  "  safety  barges "  hav- 
ing the  benefit  of  steam  propulsion  without  sleeping 
above  an  overtaxed  boiler. 

The  fear  of  bursting  boilers  was  the  one  uppermost 
in  the  minds  of  the  early  steamboat  travelers.  An 
incident  will  illustrate  the  promptness  with  which  the 
boat  owners  met  all  objections: 

The  steamboat  New  London  was  advertised  to  leave 


72  Old  Steamboat  Days 

that  part  of  the  jm(  i-  opposite  the  Eagle  Tavern,  Albany, 
for  New  York,  one  afternoon  at  4  o'elock.  A  prejudice 
existed  at  the  time  against  iron  boilers,  which  were 
thought  to  be  unsafe.  It  was,  therefore,  advertised 
that  the  N eiv  London  had  a  copper  boiler,  an  overnight 
transformation  said  to  have  been  accomplished  by  a 
liberal  application  of  copper  colored  paint. 

The  steamboats  in  their  day  tried  to  do  what  the 
telegraph  does  for  the  newspapers  to-day.  In  1829 
we  read  that  the  President's  Message  which  was  sent  to 
Congress  on  Tuesday,  December  8th,  reached  New 
York  fifteen  and  one-half  hours  afterward  and  was 
rushed  up  the  river  on  the  steamer  Albany  and  arrived 
at  that  city  in  time  to  be  published  on  Thursday  morn- 
ing, which  was  an  event  considered  to  have  been  one 
of  "unprecedented  dispatch." 

It  will  certainly  pay  you  the  next  time  you  journey 
up  the  river  to  take  note  of  the  long  low  embankment 
extending  out  in  the  water,  nearly  a  mile  from  the  shore, 
at  the  point  where  the  Palisades  suddenly  terminate 
as  if  cut  down  by  some  mighty  hand.  The  narrow 
strip  of  land  looks  more  like  a  breakwater  than  any- 
thing else,  and  close  observation  will  show  it  is  sadly 
in  need  of  repair.  It  is  now  more  of  an  obstruction  to 
navigation  than  anything  else,  and  should  have  been 
removed  long  ago. 

The  place  is  Piermont  and  it  is  the  "pier"  that 
extends  such  a  great  distance  out  in  the  river.     The 


Fast  Time  on  the  River  73 

"mont"  or  "mount"  is  at  the  shore  end  of  the  pier 
and  if  you  have  a  pair  of  marine  glasses  with  you,  on 
looking  well  up  on  the  hillside  you  will  find  a  large 
yellow  building  that  was  once  a  hotel.  Both  the  pier 
and  the  hotel  are  the  silent  witnesses  of  the  busy, 
husthng  times  that  once  marked  the  place,  but  now 
long  since  gone. 

Piermont  was  the  eastern  terminal  in  those  days,  of 
the  Erie  Railway  and  was  the  nearest  possible  point 
the  road  could  get  to  New  York  City.  The  New  Jersey 
State  line  reaches  down  to  the  Hudson  about  two  miles 
south  of  Piermont.  About  the  last  place  you  can  note 
in  New  York  State  below  Piermont  is  Snedens  Land- 
ing, a  point  of  interest,  however,  for  General  Corn- 
wallis  landed  there  with  six  thousand  British  troops 
in  1776  and  marched  on  Fort  Lee  further  down  on  the 
Palisades. 

When  the  Erie  Railroad  was  built  under  a  New 
York  charter,  New  Jersey  put  up  the  bars  against  the 
new  railway  entering  that  State. 

It  was  the  talk  those  days  that  the  old  Camden  and 
Amboy  road  controlled  the  entire  railroad  situation 
in  New  Jersey.  It  was  certainly  a  powerful  combina- 
tion, which  has  since  become  incorporated  in  the  Penn- 
sylvania Railroad  system.  At  any  rate,  it  was  powerful 
enough  to  make  the  Erie  get  to  New  York  by  way  of 
Piermont.  This  was  the  reason  the  long  pier  was 
built;  tracks  laid  upon  it  and  the  passenger  trains  run 


74  Old  Steamboat  Days 

out  to  a  stoainht)at  fony  landing.  From  tliis  point  all 
the  pas.senij;ers  wore  carried  to  New  York  City  by 
steamboats  and  the  railroad  attempted  to  overcome 
the  serious  handicap,  by  making  the  trips  between 
Piermont  and  the  city  in  the  shortest  time  possible. 
The  freight  was  lightered  down  the  river. 

It  can  readily  be  imagined  what  a  sc-enc  of  busy  activity 
the  old  pier  must  have  been  in  times  past,  though  one 
will  look  in  vain  for  any  signs  of  life  there  now,  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  manufactories  that  have  located 
at  the  shore  end  of  the  pier.  The  Piermont  branch  of 
the  Erie  is  still  in  existence,  and  freight  cars  are  brought 
down  the  steep  grades  to  the  river  level  at  that  point 
for  the  benefit  of  local  shippers. 

The  old  hotel  on  the  hillside  has  been  a  school,  a 
conservatory  of  music  and  a  boarding-house  since  the 
busy  days  when  it  was  a  popular  hostelry  at  which 
fashionable  New  Yorkers  bound  west  stopped  over 
night,  so  as  to  take  the  first  morning  trains,  without 
being  forced  to  leave  the  city  at  an  inconveniently  early 
hour  on  the  Erie's  fast  steamboat  express  ferry  from 
the  foot  of  Duane  Street. 


CHAPTER  IX 

DISASTERS   OF   RIVER  TRAVEL 

ACCIDENTS  have  attended  the  navigation  of  the 
river.  Since  the  introduction  of  steam,  boats  have 
sunk,  burned  and  been  in  colhsion  on  many  occasions. 
Frequently  there  was  an  attendant  loss  of  life.  Never, 
however,  has  there  been  such  a  disaster  as  that  of  the 
burning  of  the  General  Slocum,  on  the  East  River  in 
broad  daylight,  June  15,  1904,  when  nine  hundred  and 
fifty-eight  lives  were  lost  and  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  injured,  or  the  more  recent  catastrophe  of  the 
Joy  Liner  Larchmont,  on  the  Sound  off  Block  Island, 
February  11,  1907.  Then  nearly  two  hundred  souls 
perished  in  the  icy  waters,  as  the  result  of  the  collision 
between  the  steamer  and  the  schooner  Henry  Knowl- 
ton. 

Possibly  the  nearness  of  the  shores  on  either  side  of 
the  river,  the  more  careful  supervision  of  the  boats  by 
the  operating  lines,  the  watchfulness  of  the  captains 
or  indeed  sailor's  luck  may  account  for  the  com- 
paratively small  loss  that  has  attended  the  navigation 


76  Old  Steamboat  Days 

i)f  tho  Hudson.  From  whatever  cause  the  fact  arises, 
it  certainly  is  a  matter  of  satisfaction  to  note  the  toll 
of  the  dead  is  comparatively  small,  when  the  years  and 
number  of  passengers  transported  are  taken  into  con- 
sideration. 

Still  the  Hudson  is  a  treacherous  river  to  navigate 
in  a  fog  and  at  all  times  there  are  shoals  and  rocks 
for  the  pilots  to  avoid.  It  requires  an  expert  at  the 
wheel  to  take  a  boat  through  the  apparently  land- 
locked turns  and  reaches  at  the  Highlands.  Much  has 
been  accomplished  in  later  years  by  the  Federal  and 
State  Governments  erecting  range  marks  on  the  shores, 
building  lighthouses  on  the  most  dangerous  points  and 
deepening  the  channel  by  dykes  above  New  Baltimore. 
Many  a  boat  has  gone  aground  on  the  bar  below 
Albany  and  remained  a  prisoner  there  for  hours,  an 
experience  to  which  the  river  traveler  of  to-day  is 
seldom  subjected. 

The  Clermont  alone  of  the  three  earlier  boats  on  the 
river,  was  continued  long  enough  in  the  service  as  the 
North  River  to  receive  an  honorable  discharge  by  being 
"  broken  up."  Both  the  Car  of  Neptune  and  the  Para- 
gon sank,  the  latter  in  1825. 

The  General  Jackson  on  a  trip  from  Peekskill  to 
New  York  exploded  her  boilers  near  Grassy  Point  and 
several  passengers  were  killed.  "  Commodore "  Van- 
derbilt's  brother  Jacob  was  her  captain  at  the  time. 

The  North  America  became  a  wreck  when  moored 


Disasters  of  River  Travel  77 

to  her  dock  in  Albany  in  the  spring  of  1839.  She  was 
carried  down  by  the  breaking  up  of  the  ice  in  the  Island 
Creek.    No  lives  were  lost. 

The  steamboat  Sivalloiv,  one  of  the  most  popular 
and  speedy  boats  of  her  time,  on  her  way  down  the 
river,  in  a  snow  squall,  from  Albany,  on  Monday 
evening,  April  7,  1845,  met  with  disaster.  She  was 
under  command  of  Captain  Squires  and  was  known  as 
a  night  boat.  She  left  Albany  in  the  evening  and 
reached  New  York  the  next  morning.  When  near 
Athens,  which  is  nearly  opposite  from  the  city  of 
Hudson,  she  struck  a  rock,  took  fire,  broke  in  two  and 
rapidly  sank.  There  is  little  doubt  but  that  she  was 
racing  with  the  Express  and  Rochester.  The  reporter 
of  the  Hudson  Rural  Repository  who,  with  characteristic 
enterprise,  was  on  the  spot,  in  his  account  of  the 
disaster  says : 

"On  Monday  evening,  April  7th,  the  steamboat 
Swallow,  Captain  A.  H.  Squires,  was  on  her  passage 
from  Albany  to  New  York,  and  when  opposite  this 
city,  in  the  Athens  channel,  ran  upon  a  little,  rocky 
island,  broke  in  two,  and  in  a  few  minutes  sank.  The 
alarm  was  immediately  spread  in  Athens,  and  a  large 
number  of  citizens  soon  rallied  to  the  scene  of  disaster, 
and  happily  succeeded  in  rescuing  many  lives.  Soon 
after  the  steamboats  Express  and  Rochester  came  down 
and  promptly  rendered  what  assistance  was  in  their 
power,   taking   many   passengers   with  them   to   New 


78  Old  Steamboat  Days 

York.  The  Swallow  had  on  board  a  large  number  of 
passengers,  but  the  exact  loss  of  life  is  at  present  un- 
known [the  number  lost  proved  to  be  about  fifteen]. 
The  night  was  exceedingly  dark,  with  a  heav^  gale, 
snow  and  rain,  and  very  cold.  Our  citizens  are  yet 
busy  about  the  wreck." 

The  rocks  on  which  the  Swallow  was  wrecked  made 
a  little  island  formerly  known  as  Noah's  Brig,  es- 
pecially among  the  lumbermen,  who  ran  rafts  of  logs 
and  lumber  down  the  river.  It  derived  that  name, 
according  to  the  "History  of  Columbia  County,"  from 
the  following  incident :  "  One  night  a  large  number  of 
rafts  were  coming  down  the  west  channel,  one  of  them 
being  under  the  command  of  a  man  who  was  known 
among  his  comrades  by  his  Christian  name,  'Noah.' 
As  the  rafts  neared  this  point  Noah  espied  in  the  dim 
light  a  dark  object  riding  upon  the  waters,  which  he  at 
once  decided  to  be  a  brig  under  sail,  and  as  soon  as  he 
had  approached  near  enough  he  hailed  it,  '  Brig  ahoy ! ' 
No  response.  Again,  in  stentorian  tone,  his  hail  rang 
out  upon  the  night  air,  but  still  no  attention  was  paid, 
and  the  mysterious  craft  kept  unswervingly  to  its 
course.  This  exasperated  Noah,  and  his  third  hail 
was  'Brig  ahoy!  answer,  or  I'll  run  you  down!'  and, 
as  no  reply  was  given,  true  to  his  word  he  did  run 
down  the  island ;  two  trees  standing  widely  apart  having 
deceived  him  as  to  its  character.  Probably  neither 
Noah's  brig  nor  his  raft  sustained  serious  injury,  but 


Disasters  of  River  Travel  79 

the  poor  Swallow  met  a  more  cruel  fate.  A  large  por- 
tion of  the  island  has  been  taken  away,  and  the  rock 
material  was  used  in  constructing  the  embankments 
of  the  canal  through  the  middle  ground." 

The  place  since  the  eventful  wreck  has  always  been 
called  the  Swallow  Rocks. 

The  author's  father,  Ira  Buckman,  purchased  the 
old  wreck  of  the  Sivallow,  hauled  the  material  seven 
miles  inland  and  from  it  built  a  fine  two-story  house  at 
Valatia,  N.  Y.  It  is  on  the  old  Albany  Post  Road,  is 
yet  standing  in  a  good  state  of  preservation  and  is  still 
known  as  the  "  Swallow  House." 

The  Victory  sank  in  1845.  She  had  always  belied 
her  name  and  was  a  hoodoo  from  the  first:  she  was 
built  in  1828  and  owned  largely  in  Albany.  Her  en- 
gines were  too  powerful  and  she  was  always  meeting 
with  accidents.  This  same  company  built  and  put  on 
their  line  the  DeWitt  Clinton  which  finally  became  a 
tow  barge,  but  the  enterprise  was  never  a  success  and 
many  Albanians  lost  all  they  put  into  the  scheme. 

The  Empire  was  run  into  by  the  schooner  Noah 
Brown  in  Newburgh  Bay,  May  18,  1849,  and  twenty- 
four  lives  were  lost. 

The  loss  of  the  Henry  Clay  on  July  28,  1852,  was  one 
of  the  notable  and  fatal  disasters  of  the  river.  She  had 
almost  reached  New  York  on  her  way  from  Albany 
when  she  was  discovered  to  be  on  fire.  Her  captain 
headed  her  for  the  shore  at  Riverdale  and  ran  her  hard 


80  Old  Steamboat  Days 

a<;rouiul,  hut  unt'ortunately  most  of  the  passengers 
wore  at  the  stern,  which  was  in  deep  water  and  im- 
prisoned by  the  flames.  There  was  a  wihl  panic,  the 
terror  stricken  men  and  women  fighting  for  possession 
of  the  hfe  preservers  and  struggHng  with  one  another 
even  after  hmding  in  the  water.  Sixty  hves  were  lost, 
including  a  number  of  well-known  New  Yorkers, 
among  the  number  being  Miss  Hawthorne,  a  sister  of 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  and  the  calamity  cast  a  gloom 
over  the  entire  city.  The  shore  of  the  river  at  the  place 
of  the  accident  was  crowded  for  days  with  people  seek- 
ing to  recover  the  bodies  of  the  dead. 

The  Reindeer,  one  of  the  larger  and  popular  boats, 
wliich  bore  Jenny  Lind  in  triumph  to  Albany  when 
making  her  successful  trip  through  the  country,  met 
with  disaster  September  4,  1852.  The  boilers  of  the 
boat  burst  near  Bristol,  forty  miles  below  Albany. 
Six  persons  were  killed  and  twenty-five  others  died 
afterwards  of  their  injuries. 

These  two  accidents,  following  so  closely  one  after 
the  other,  resulted  in  a  public  agitation  that  secured 
the  enactment  of  the  Steamboat  Inspection  Bill  of  that 
year.  Though  the  captain  of  the  Clay  and  the  owners 
insisted  there  had  been  no  racing,  the  passengers 
claimed  there  had; — the  coroner's  jury  found  she  had 
been  racing  all  the  way  down  the  river  with  the  Armenia 
and  the  disaster  was  without  doubt  the  result  of  the 
woodwork  catching  fire  from  the  overheated  boilers. 


Disasters  of  River  Travel  81 

The  New  World  sank  off  the  Stuyvesant  shore  on 
July  4,  1861,  on  her  way  from  New  York  to  Albany. 
It  was  in  the  morning  and  daylight  and  fortunately  no 
lives  were  lost.  She  was  raised  and  repaired  at  New 
York  and  was  used  during  the  Civil  War,  then  in 
progress,  as  a  hospital  ship,  being  stationed  in  the 
vicinity  of  West  Point.  Her  engines  were  placed  in  a 
new  night  boat  for  the  People's  Line,  called  the  St. 
John. 

The  Oregon  was  sunk  in  collision  with  the  City  of 
Boston,  at  New  York,  October  22,  1863,  and  in  June, 
1864,  the  Berkshire  burned  near  Hyde  Park  with  loss 
of  life. 

The  Isaac  Newton,  on  her  up-river  trip  on  the  night 
of  December  5,  1863,  exploded  her  starboard  boiler 
opposite  Fort  Washington  Point,  after  which  she 
caught  fire  and  was  completely  destroyed.  Seventeen 
persons  were  scalded,  nine  of  whom  died. 

The  Francis  Skiddy,  one  of  the  four  pipers  with  as 
many  boilers,  built  for  speed  in  1851,  came  to  grief  on 
her  down  trip  November  5,  1864.  She  hit  a  rock  near 
Staatsburg  while  trying  to  avoid  a  large  tow  and 
proved  to  be  so  bad  a  wreck  that  she  was  never  put 
again  in  service.  Her  engines  were  taken  out  and  for 
the  most  part  placed  in  the  Dean  Richmond,  which  was 
new  in  1865,  and  they  are  still  doing  duty  in  that  boat. 
Though  the  Skiddy  never  fulfilled  the  expectations  of 
her  owners  as  a  speeder,  she,  for  a  long  period,  accom- 


82  Old  Steamboat  Days 

plishcd  what  none  of  the  present  boats  are  called  upon 
to  do:  she  made  a  round  trip  between  Albany  and 
New  York  every  twenty-four  hours. 

The  St.  John  burst  one  of  her  boilers  October  29, 
1865,  a  few  miles  below  Albany,  and  fifteen  lives  were 
lost,  most  of  them  being  passengers.  She  was  repaired 
and  ran  for  twenty  years,  one  of  the  most  popular  boats 
on  the  river,  finally  being  destroyed  by  fire  while  laid 
up  in  winter  quarters  at  the  foot  of  Canal  street.  New 
York,  in  February,  1885. 

The  St.  John  rammed  and  sank  the  Catskill  several 
years  ago  off  West  Sixty-fifth  street.  New  York,  and 
the  Onteora  not  long  since  ran  high  and  dry  in  a  brick- 
yard above  Ncwburgh,  but  was  hauled  off  without 
much  damage. 

One  of  the  latest  serious  accidents  to  befall  the  river 
boats  was  on  October  13,  1906,  when  the  Troy  Line 
boat  Saratoga  ran  down  the  Adirondack  near  Tivoli. 

The  Saratoga  was  so  badly  injured  she  dropped  one 
of  her  boilers  in  the  river  and  it  has  never  been  recov- 
ered. The  Adirondack  had  much  of  her  forward  work 
carried  away,  but  continued  to  run  for  the  balance  of 
the  season.  Each  boat  lost  a  man.  The  Saratoga 
ended  her  career  on  the  river  then  and  there. 

The  City  of  Troy  was  discovered  to  be  on  fire  after 
leaving  Yonkers  on  the  evening  of  April  5,  1907.  She 
had  aboard  about  one  hundred  passengers  and  a 
valuable  cargo  of  freight.     Captain  Briider  and  his  crew 


Disasters  of  River  Travel  83 

made  a  desperate  effort  to  subdue  the  fire  which  origi- 
nated in  the  galley  in  the  hold,  but  without  success, 
so  he  effected  a  landing  at  the  Gould  Dock  at  Ardsley. 
All  the  panic-stricken  passengers  were  safely  landed, 
but  the  entire  cargo,  including  several  horses,  was  lost, 
as  the  vessel,  after  setting  fire  to  the  dock,  burned  to 
the  water's  edge  and  was  a  total  loss.  She  was  built  in 
1876,  but  several  times  reconstructed.  She  was  two 
hundred  and  eighty  feet  long,  thirty-eight  feet  beam, 
and  her  engines  were  1,600  horse  power. 


CHAPTER  X 


FLOATING   TOWNS 


AMONG  the  most  picturesque  sights  on  the  Hud- 
son are  its  floating  towns.  No  more  fitting  term 
can  be  used  to  designate  the  long  hnes  of  canal  boats 
lashed  together  four  and  five  abreast  and  strung  out 
for  nearly  a  half  mile,  being  towed  down  the  river,  so 
slowly  that  the  movement  is  hardly  discernible. 

The  tows,  which  are  made  up  at  the  basin  above 
Albany  where  the  Erie  Canal  enters  the  Hudson,  look 
very  much  like  floating  towns,  presenting  the  regu- 
larity of  blocks  of  buildings,  with  lanes  of  open  water 
between,  not  unlike  streets  in  appearance. 

These  clusters  of  "canalers,"  hay  barges  and  ice 
boats,  though  of  a  motley  appearance,  are  always 
interesting.  Home  life  in  its  every  phase  can  be  noted, 
for  the  "canaler's"  boat  is  largely  his  world.  His 
family  is  domiciled  on  the  craft  from  the  opening  to 
the  close  of  navigation,  and  the  boat  is  often  maintained 
as  the  home  when  in  winter  quarters. 

On  one  the  captain's  wife  may  be  seen  washing 


Floating  Towns  85 

clothes  just  outside  iier  cabin  door  and  on  another  the 
entire  wash  hanging  up  to  dry;  red  flannel  shirts  of 
the  men  flutter  in  the  breeze,  and  on  the  same  lines  is 
the  finest  of  snowy  under-linen  of  both  male  and  female 
variety.  Little  shirts  and  "petties"  also  indicate  the 
presence  of  children,  and  if  you  watch  for  them  you 
will  find  them  on  some  of  the  boats,  playing  with  children 
from  the  other  craft  in  the  tow  or  running  over  the 
decks  with  their  dogs  at  such  a  rate,  one  wonders  they 
do  not  fall  overboard.  Some  of  the  cabin  roofs  are 
fitted  up  with  gay  canvas  awnings,  hammocks  and 
swings.  Bright  hued  geraniums  and  other  flowers  in 
boxes  in  front  of  the  cabin  windows  add  to  the  picture. 
Sometimes  a  group  of  men  and  women  will  be  seen  on 
one  of  the  boats,  spending  a  pleasant  hour  eating 
and  listening  to  the  lively  music  of  a  concertina 
or  guitar,  for  it  is  while  the  boats  are  being  slowly 
towed  down  or  up  the  river,  that  the  "  canalers  "  have 
a  rest  and  the  opportunity  to  relieve  the  rather  dull 
monotony  of  their  lives,  by  these  social  amenities. 

Because  these  people  of  the  canal  boats  live  lives 
apart  and  different  from  others,  do  not  imagine  for  a 
moment  there  is  not  to  be  found  among  them  men  and 
women  who  are  quite  the  equal  of  the  average  men  and 
women  met  with  elsewhere.  Especially  was  this  the 
fact  in  the  years  that  followed  shortly  after  the  opening 
of  the  Erie  Canal. 

Many  young   men   on  the  farms  and  in  the  mid- 


86  Old  Steamboat  Days 

state  towns  through  the  Mohawk  Valley,  married  and 
single,  saw  in  the  new  waterway  opportunities  to  make 
a  fortune  and  to  travel  to  the  great  cities.  They  in- 
vested in  canal  boats  and  became  both  owners  and 
captains.  They  carried  grain  and  products  of  all 
kinds  to  New  York  and  went  back  loaded  with  manu- 
factured goods  for  the  up-state  farmers.  Some  men  ran 
passenger  packets  on  the  canal,  and  the  Red  Bird  and 
other  lines  carried  many  between  Albany  and  Buffalo. 

Many  of  the  boats,  those  carrying  wheat  especially 
— for  it  was  before  the  day  of  railroads  with  their  huge 
grain  elevators  at  the  terminals — were  kept  particularly 
clean  and  were  provided  with  roomy  cabins  in  the 
stern,  wonderfully  contrived  for  convenience,  in  which 
the  captain,  his  wife  and  sometimes  the  children  lived 
comfortably.  The  mules  that  towed  the  boats  on  the 
canal  were  quartered  in  a  stable  built  in  the  bow  of  the 
boat. 

The  owners  of  this  great  inland  marine,  that  sprang 
into  existence  on  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal,  had 
as  many  different  ideas  as  to  the  naming  of  their  boats 
as  come  to  the  minds  of  parents  naming  their  first  bom. 
Some  were  fancy,  some  just  homely  family  names  after 
the  owner's  wife  or  daughter;  others  were  those  of 
heroes  and  even  mythological  gods  and  goddesses 
were  not  forgotten.  It  is  on  this  account  if  you  ever 
get  near  enough  to  closely  inspect  these  river  tows,  you 
are  apt  to  find  the   Gladiator  of  Spencerport  bound 


Floating  Towns  87 

more  firmly  with  two-inch  hawsers  to  Elizabeth  Jones 
of  Fort  Ann,  than  the  marital  ties  of  many  couples 
bind  them  to-day.  General  George  Washington  is  apt 
to  be  found  keeping  company  with  Polly,  all  the  way 
down  the  river  and  if  two  late  stragglers  join  the  tow 
and  are  hitched  on  behind  all  the  rest,  it  is  like  as  not 
to  prove  to  be  Minerva  and  Jim  enjoying,  as  it  were, 
for  a  few  hours,  only  too  brief,  a  tete-d-tete  by  them- 
selves. 

This  towing  of  canal  boats  on  the  Hudson  con- 
stitutes a  large  and  profitable  business  in  its  own  class. 
It  is  in  the  hands  of  regularly  organized  companies 
and  the  rates  are  now  so  thoroughly  established  that 
"cut-throating"  is  a  tlaing  of  the  past.  It  was  not  al- 
ways so,  for  competition  in  the  towing  business  was 
quite  as  fierce  as  it  was  in  the  freight  and  passenger 
business.  The  time  was,  when  a  canal  boat  owner 
could  get  a  tow  all  the  w^ay  from  Albany  to  New  York 
for  five  dollars,  but  the  average  fee  when  competition 
was  not  cutting  all  profit  from  the  business  was  more 
likely  to  be  fifteen. 

Some  of  the  old-time  companies  engaged  in  the 
business  was  the  Schuyler  Towing  Co.  of  Albany,  the 
Austin  Towing  Co.,  the  Ronan  Co.  and  the  Swift  Sure 
Towing  Co.  of  New  York.  Most  of  the  canal  boats 
rendezvoused  in  New  York  at  the  basin  at  Coenties 
Slip,  on  the  East  River,  and  it  is  at  this  point  that  the 
up-river  tows  are  still  made  up. 


88  Old  Steamboat  Days 

The  steamers  that  pulled  these  immense  tows  up  and 
down  llio  riviT  wore  for  the  most  part  old  passenger 
boats,  rebuilt  and  adapted  for  the  purpose  by  the 
removal  of  most  of  their  upper  works,  saloons  and 
staterooms.  The  Vanderbilt,  Niagara,  Norwich,  Alida, 
Cayuga,  Syracuse,  Connecticut  and  many  others  have 
become  tow  boats,  and  if  you  have  ever  seen  an  old 
cattle  boat,  the  John  Stevens,  knocking  about  the 
river,  loaded  with  livestock  for  the  abattoirs,  you  will 
have  recognized  in  many  of  her  lines  those  of  the  fine 
passenger  boat  she  was  in  the  fifties. 

It  required  nearly  a  week  for  one  of  these  tows  to 
make  the  trip  down  the  river,  the  progress  was  so  slow. 
Generally  sixty  to  eighty  boats  made  up  a  good  sized 
tow,  but  Capt.  Harvey  Temple  went  up  the  river  one 
time,  with  a  broom  on  the  flagstaff  of  the  old  Con- 
necticut, and  pulling  one  hundred  and  eight  canal 
boats  behind  her,  which  made  a  new  record  in  the 
size  of  towing  fleets,  and  so  far  as  the  author  is  in- 
formed, still  is  the  largest. 

These  flotillas  of  canal  boats,  not  so  large  now  as  in 
the  former  days,  are  all  witnesses  of  the  great  impor- 
tance of  the  vast  system  of  inland  waterways  which 
helped  to  make  undisputed  New  York's  title  to  being 
the  Empire  State.  It  has  nearly  one  thousand  miles 
of  canals  within  its  borders,  the  construction  and  main- 
tenance of  which  has  cost  upward  of  a  hundred  million 
dollars. 


Floating  Towns  89 

Of  these  the  Erie  Canal,  three  hundred  and  sixty-one 
miles  in  length,  is  by  far  the  most  important,  connecting 
the  Great  Lakes  with  the  tidewater  of  the  Hudson. 
Next  in  importance  is  the  Champlain  Canal  and  Glens 
Falls  Feeder  which  connects  the  Hudson  with  Lake 
Champlain.  These  and  the  other  canals  have  in  the 
past  played  a  great  part  in  the  development  of  the 
State.  The  cities  on  the  Hne  of  the  Erie  Canal — 
Schenectady,  Amsterdam,  Utica,  Rome,  Little  Falls, 
Syracuse  and  Rochester — owe  much  to  the  waterway 
that  brought  commerce  to  their  doors  and  placed 
them  in  ready  communication  with  the  rest  of  the 
country. 

Call  to  mind  if  you  can  the  many  towns  in  the  center 
of  the  State,  far  from  the  waters  of  the  lakes,  rivers  or 
ocean,  which  have  an  aqueous  termination  or  sug- 
gestiveness  in  their  names  and  you  will  realize  in  a 
small  degree  the  importance  of  what  the  great  canal 
system  meant  to  places  that  would  have  been  to-day 
little  more  than  straggling  hamlets  on  dusty  country 
cross  roads.  With  the  ocean  and  the  Great  Lakes 
many  miles  distant  you  will  find  in  inland  New  York, 
Lockport,  Gasport,  Middleport,  Shelby  Basin,  Eagle 
Harbor,  Brockport,  Adams  Basin,  Spencerport,  Fair- 
port,  Waynesport,  Port  Gilson,  Weedsport,  Port  Byron 
and  other  "  ports, "  all  witnesses  to  the  developing 
power  of  the  canal  system  of  the  State. 

The  work  of  building  the  Erie  Canal  was  begun 


90  Old  Steamboat  Days 

uiulor  :ui  act  of  the  Legislature,  July  4,  1817,  at  Rome, 
ill  the  presence  of  Gov.  Dc  Witt  Clinton,  through  whose 
earnest  endeavors,  exerted  at  all  times  and  in  the  face 
of  much  opposition,  the  great  improvement  was  urged 
to  a  successful  completion.  The  Governor's  opponents 
always  referred  to  the  vast  undertaking  in  those  days 
as  "  Clinton's  Big  Ditch."  The  plans  provided  for  a 
canal  forty  feet  wide  at  the  top,  eighteen  feet  at  the 
bottom,  with  a  depth  of  at  least  four  feet  of  water, 
which  was  calculated  to  accommodate  boats  of  one 
hundred  tons  burden.  The  work  had  progressed  so 
far  that  on  October  22,  1819,  the  first  boat  was  able 
to  make  the  trip  from  Rome  to  Utica  with  Governor 
Clinton,  Chancellor  Livingston  and  other  distinguished 
men  aboard. 

It  was  not  until  October  26,  1825,  however,  after 
eight  years  of  prodigious  labor,  that  the  Erie  and 
Champlain  Canals  were  opened  and  the  Hudson  was 
the  scene  of  such  a  maritime  pageant  that  the  people 
of  that  period  had  never  dreamed  of. 

On  the  date  named  a  flotilla  of  canal  boats,  all  new 
and  gaily  decorated,  started  from  Buffalo,  on  Lake 
Erie,  for  New  York  City.  The  news  of  the  departure 
was  communicated  to  the  latter  city  by  the  booming  of 
cannon  located  along  the  hne  and  the  signal  thus 
traveled  across  the  entire  State  and  down  the  Hudson 
in  one  hour  and  twenty  minutes.  When  the  boats 
reached  Albany  they  were  received  by  a  great  throng 


Floating  Towns  91 

of  people.  Governor  Clinton,  the  Canal  Commissioners 
and  all  the  State  officials.  There  never  was  such  a  ring- 
ing of  bells  and  booming  of  cannon  in  the  place  before. 
The  people  who  had  made  the  trip  from  Buffalo  were 
escorted  to  the  capitol  in  a  triumphal  procession  and 
welcomed  by  Mayor  Hone,  of  New  York  City,  on  be- 
half of  the  people  of  the  metropolis. 

On  November  fifth,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
the  canal  boat  packets,  convoyed  by  the  Chancellor  Liv- 
ingston, with  Governor  Clinton  and  distinguished  guests 
on  board  the  Young  Lion  of  the  West  and  the  Seneca 
Chief,  reached  New  York  and  were  welcomed  by  the 
New  York  Common  Council,  which  met  the  fleet  on 
board  the  steamboat  Washington.  Every  vessel  in  the 
harbor  was  gaily  decorated  with  flags,  the  church  bells 
rang  and  cannon  saluted  as  the  naval  procession  rounded 
the  Battery  and  sailed  up  the  East  River  as  far  as  the 
Brooklyn  Navy  Yard.  There  other  vessels  joined  the 
fleet,  which  turned  and  sailed  to  Sandy  Hook  where 
the  schooner  Dolphin  had  been  anchored. 

Here  took  place  the  most  unique  feature  of  the 
celebration.  As  the  boats  circled  round  the  schooner 
Governor  Clinton  poured  a  keg  of  the  fresh  water  of 
Lake  Erie  into  the  salt  water  of  the  Atlantic  and  the 
marriage  of  the  Great  Lakes  and  the  ocean  was  an- 
nounced as  having  been  duly  solemnized.  As  another 
token  of  what  the  great  improvement  meant  to  the 
civilized  world  Dr.  Samuel  L.   Mitchell  poured  into 


92  Old  Steamboat  Days 

the  ocean,  waters  collected  by  him  from  the  Thames, 
Seine,  Riiine,  Danube,  Amazon,  La  Plata,  Orinoco, 
Ganges,  Inilus,  (Gambia,  Nile,  Mississippi  and  Colum- 
bia Rivers. 

On  returning  to  the  city  the  distinguished  State 
officials  were  met  at  the  Battery  with  a  procession 
nearly  four  miles  long,  which  marched  through  the 
principal  streets.  At  night  there  was  a  great  display  of 
fireworks,  the  city  was  brilliantly  illuminated  and 
altogether  it  was  the  greatest  celebration  old  New 
York  had  ever  had  up  to  that  time. 

The  Erie  Canal  having  demonstrated  its  great  use- 
fulness to  the  State  was  enlarged  in  1854  to  seventy 
feet  at  the  surface,  fifty-six  at  the  bottom,  with  a  depth 
of  seven  feet. 

At  the  present  time  a  third  enlargement  and  im- 
provement is  being  made  by  straightening  the  course 
so  as  to  afford  a  larger  capacity  to  float  barges  of  one 
thousand  tons  burden.  The  people  carried  the  propo- 
sition to  spend  one  hundred  and  one  million  dollars  on 
the  last  enlargement,  by  a  large  majority  at  a  general 
election,  though  many  of  the  best  informed  maintain 
the  usefulness  of  canals  is  at  an  end  and  the  more 
modern  method  of  railroad  transportation  has  ren- 
dered them  obsolete.  The  people,  however,  have  gen- 
erally favored  maintaining  the  canals,  as  the  most 
effectual  check  they  could  impose  on  railroad  mo- 
nopolies. 


CHAPTER  XI 

BARGE  TRAVEL   ON   THE   RIVER 

ANOTHER  feature  of  river  life  in  the  early  days 
of  steam  navigation  was  the  barges  that  carried 
passengers  up  and  down  the  Hudson.  These  generally 
hailed  from  some  of  the  small  towns  on  the  upper  river 
that  could  not  supply  traffic  enough  to  support  a 
steamboat  service. 

At  first  the  barge  was,  however,  conceived  to  afford 
passengers  the  means  of  travel  by  steam  without  being 
subjected  to  the  dangers  of  being  upon  a  steamboat, 
with  the  attendant  possibilities  of  bursting  boilers  and 
other  fearful  accidents  from  breaking  machinery.  The 
first  to  appear  were  the  Lady  Clinton  and  the  Lady 
Van  Rensselaer  and  they  were  called  "safety  barges." 

The  barges  were  boats  with  a  main  and  upper  deck 
almost  as  long  and  commodious  as  a  steamer.  The 
main  deck  was  fitted  up  with  a  cabin,  extending  in 
some  instances  the  whole  length  of  the  boat.  There 
was  a  long  saloon,  with  "state"  or  sleeping  rooms 
arranged  along  on  either  side.    Windows  looked  out  on 


94  Old  Steamboat  Days 

the  water  and  doorways  opened  in  on  the  cabin.  There 
was  generally  a  long  table  in  the  saloon  at  which  meals 
were  served  for  fifty  cents  each  to  the  passengers.  The 
captain  of  the  barge  always  sat  at  the  head  of  the  table 
and  helped  make  the  meal  hour  quite  an  event  of  the 
trip.  These  barges  were  towed  by  one  of  the  regular 
passenger  boats  up  to  their  home  town,  where  they 
would  be  dropped. 

The  "  safety  barges  "  were  quite  popular  in  their  day, 
for  they  carried  many  passengers  who  were  enthusiastic 
over  the  pleasure  derived  from  a  trip  on  the  water  on 
boats  of  this  character. 

Thomas  L.  McKenney,  who  was  attached  to  the 
Department  of  the  Interior  at  Washington  and  one  of 
the  Commissioners  who  with  Lewis  Cass  negotiated 
the  treaty  with  the  Northwest  Indians,  made  a  barge 
journey  up  the  Hudson  in  June,  1826,  on  his  way  to 
the  Great  Lakes.  He  has  left  us  such  a  vivid  descrip- 
tion of  these  barges  and  the  delights  of  the  trip,  the 
reader  will  surely  pardon  a  somewhat  longer  quotation 
than  usual: 

"  I  left  New  York,  as  it  was  my  intention  to  do,  in  the 
Lady  Clinton,  yesterday  morning,  at  nine  o'clock.  It 
was  the  first  time  I  had  ever  seen  one  of  these  barges. 
I  must  say  I  was  struck  with  the  admirable  invention, 
and  with  the  extent  and  variety  and  perfection  of  the 
accommodations.  You  have  seen  steamboats.  This 
barge,   in   all   respects  except  breadth  of  beam   and 


Barge  Travel  on  the  River  95 

machiner}',  resembles  the  finest  you  ever  did  see.  It 
took  me  the  first  half  hour  after  getting  on  board  to 
walk  through  this  floating  palace.  It  certainly  ex- 
ceeds anything  I  have  ever  yet  seen  in  all  that  enters 
into  the  composition  of  safety  and  comfort.  Indeed 
there  is  a  splendor  too  in  the  ornamental  parts  which 
is  very  striking  and  as  if  the  inventive  genius  of  the 
owners  was  apprehensive  that  the  ear  might  grow 
jealous  of  the  eye  that  organ  had  been  provided  for 
also,  with  a  fine  band  of  music.  I  have  heard  some 
question  the  security  of  this  barge,  by  saying  her  buoy- 
ancy and  great  elevation  above  the  surface  of  the  water 
rendered  her  liable  to  turn  over.  But  I  doubt  whether 
if  she  or  her  sister,  the  Lady  Van  Rensselaer,  were  to 
glide  up  and  down  the  North  River  for  a  century  such 
an  occurrence  would  happen.  Were  they  visitants  of 
the  sea  the  swells  of  the  ocean  might  rock  them  over, 
but  never  in  my  opinion  will  the  North  River  roll  so 
as  to  occasion  such  a  disaster. 

"  This  beautiful  barge  is  towed  by  the  Commerce,  an 
unusually  fine  steamboat,  and  of  great  power.  The 
connection  is  by  means  of  two  pieces  of  timber  some 
six  feet  long.  They  are  fastened  to  either  side  of  the 
bow  of  the  barge,  and  uniting  in  the  form  of  a  pair  of 
compasses,  the  upper  or  joint  part  receives  a  bolt  of 
iron  which  rises  out  of  the  stern  of  the  Commerce. 
The  connection  parts  work  on  swivels,  hence  none  of 
the  motion  of  the  steamboat  is  communicated  to  the 


96  Old  Steamboat  Days 

barge.  Communication  is  had  between  the  two  by 
means  of  a  movable  platform  some  two  and  a  half  feet 
wide,  with  hand  rails  on  either  side.  Openings  are 
made  in  the  stern  of  the  Commerce  and  in  the  bow  of 
the  barge  in  wliich  the  platform  rests.     .     .     . 

"Some  of  the  advantages  which  the  barge  possesses 
over  the  steamboat  arc,  in  the  security  from  the  effects 
of  a  bursted  boiler — freedom  from  the  heat  and  steam 
and  from  the  smell  of  grease  and  the  kitchen,  and  from 
the  jar  occasioned  by  the  macliinery  and  the  enlarged 
accommodations — the  whole  being  set  apart  for  eating 
and  sleeping  and  walking.  The  cabin  in  which  we 
dined  is  below  and  is  the  same  in  which  the  gentlemen 
sleep;  and  one  hundred  and  eighty  persons  can  sit 
down  at  once  and  each  have  elbow  room  sufficient  for 
all  the  purposes  of  figuring  with  the  knife  and  fork  in 
all  the  graces  of  which  these  two  instruments  are  sus- 
ceptible. At  the  termination  of  this  immense  dining 
apartment  and  towards  the  bow  is  a  bar,  most  sump- 
tuously supplied  with  all  that  can  be  desired  by  the 
most  fastidious  and  thirsty.  The  berths  occupy  the 
entire  sides  of  this  vast  room;  they  are  curtained  in 
such  way  as  to  afford  retirement  in  dressing  and  un- 
dressing; there  being  brass  rods  on  which  curtains  are 
projected  and  these  are  thrown  out  at  night.  In  the 
day  the  curtains  hang  close  to  the  berths  as  is  usual. 
Next  above  this  are  the  ladies'  cabin  and  apartments — 
staterooms  rather — furnished  in  the  most  splendid  style. 


Barge  Travel  on  the  River  97 

and  in  which  a  lady  has  all  the  retirement  and  comfort 
which  the  delicacy  and  tenderness  of  her  sex  requires. 
■  "  Over  the  bar  and  upon  this  middle  apartment  or  tier 
is  an  apartment  where  the  gentlemen  dress,  shave  and 
read.  All  around  this  second  story,  it  being,  I  should 
judge,  not  over  two-thirds  the  width  of  the  boat,  and 
resting  on  the  middle  deck,  is  a  fine  walk  with  settees 
where  you  can  sit  when  you  please  and  lounge.  Then 
comes,  and  over  all,  the  grand  promenade,  with  an 
awning  when  the  sun  or  rain  requires  it  over  the  whole. 

"It  is  not  possible  for  New  York  to  furnish  in  her 
best  hotels  a  better  dinner  than  we  sat  down  to  yes- 
terday; nor  in  a  better  style  of  preparation.  I  suppose 
our  company  numbered  one  hundred.  The  captain  is 
highly  qualified,  no  less  by  his  masterly  knowledge  of 
his  duty  than  by  his  gentlemanly  courtesy,  for  so 
splendid  a  charge;  and  the  attendants  appeared  to  be 
the  best.  Taken  altogether  I  question  whether  the 
world  ever  witnessed  anything  so  perfect  in  all  that 
relates  to  the  accommodation  and  comfort  and  pleasure 
of  passengers." 

Evidently  Mr.  McKenney  enjoyed  his  barge  trip  up 
the  Hudson,  and  it  is  quite  likely  that  he  traveled  on  a 
pass. 

Some  of  the  passenger  barges  that  plied  for  years  on 
the  river  were  the  Newhurgh,  Susquehanna  and  Charles 
Spear.  Their  towing  steamer  was  the  Highlander 
owned  by  the  Powell  family,  which  gave  the  Hudson 


98  Old  Steamboat  Days 

two  well-known  steamers,  the  Thomas  and  Mary 
Poiccll.  The  first  named,  however,  never  equaled  the 
latter  in  j)()int  of  speed.  The  firm  of  T.  &  J.  Powell 
of  Newburj^h  ran  a  line  of  sloops  on  the  river  as  early 
at  1802;  and  it  was  from  that  beginning  the  present 
daily  evening  steamboat  service  to  that  city  came 
eventually  into  existence,  the  owners  of  the  Homer 
Ramsdell  Line  (now  included  in  the  Central  Hudson 
Co.)  being  grandsons  of  Thomas  Powell. 

It  is  believed  the  propeller  type  of  river  boat  was 
especially  built  to  make  it  more  feasible  to  tow 
these  barges,  as  the  side  wheel  boats  made  it  very 
noisy,  the  revolving  paddles  splashing  the  water  at  the 
side  of  the  barges  all  night  long.  With  the  propeller 
wheel  at  the  stern  this  difl&culty,  as  well  as  much  of  the 
motion,  was  overcome. 

Traveling  by  barge  was  not  always  the  height  of  en- 
joyment and  comfort  described  by  the  enthusiastic 
traveler  just  quoted.  Progress  was  slow  and  the  boats 
latterly  carried  a  varied  cargo  of  farm  products,  baled 
hay  and  live  stock.  Calves  and  lambs  bound  for  the 
city  slaughter  houses,  and  horses  for  the  New  York 
street  car  lines — the  Third  Avenue  line  had  three  thou- 
sand horses  in  its  stables  alone — frequently  made  such  a 
chorus  of  "  bahing,"  bleating  and  neighing  that  rendered 
futile  any  attempt  to  sleep  in  the  "stateroom"  in  the 
"  grand  saloon  "  on  the  upper  deck. 

Most,  if  not  all  the  passenger  barges  have  been  taken 


Barge  Travel  on  the  River  99 

from  the  river,  and  after  being  altered,  first,  to  make 
excursion  boats  for  Sunday  school  and  social  club 
picnics  around  the  cities,  finally  became  hay  boats  to 
carry  that  staple  product  of  the  Hudson  Valley  farmers 
to  the  New  York  market.  Doubtless  there  are  grand- 
fathers and  grandmothers  who  may  read  this,  who  will 
be  able  to  call  to  mind  rare  midsummer  holidays 
spent  aboard  the  "elegant  and  commodious  barges" 
William  Myers,  Walter  Sands  or  the  Caledonia,  in 
dancing  and  merry-making,  as  they  were  slowly  towed 
to  some  popular  picnic  ground  near  the  great  city. 

Possibly  the  best  conception  of  what  the  old  passen- 
ger barges  were  like  may  be  found  in  the  floating 
hospital  of  St.  John's  Guild,  the  Helen  C.  Juilliard, 
which  in  the  summer  months  can  be  seen  almost  daily 
being  towed  up  the  river  or  down  the  bay  crowded 
with  mothers  and  babies  from  the  East  Side  tenements 
and  affording  them  rare  opportunities  to  be  in  the 
sunshine  and  breathe  the  fresh  air.  The  boat  is  pro- 
\aded  with  every  accommodation  in  the  way  of  cabin 
accessories,  having  been  built  especially  for  the  pur- 
pose. The  floating  hospital  is  considered  one  of  the 
most  beneficent  charities  of  the  great  city. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   STEAMBOATS   OF   TO-DAY 

THERE  is  none  of  the  old  time  competition  for  the 
passenger  traffic  on  the  river  to-day.  It  has  been 
adjusted  between  the  several  lines.  Indeed  some  kind 
of  a  traffic  arrangement  is  made  between  the  boats  and 
railroads.  The  character  of  the  boats  and  the  accom- 
modations have  been  improved  and  most  all  the  craft 
now  operating  in  the  passenger  service  are  new,  pre- 
senting every  luxury  possible  to  secure  in  boat  travel. 

The  principal  steamboat  companies  operating  on  the 
river  at  present  are  the  People's  Line  night  boats  to 
Albany,  the  Day  Line  to  Albany,  the  Citizens'  Line  to 
Troy,  the  Catskill  Night  Line,  the  Hudson  Night  Line, 
the  Newburgh  Night  Line  and  the  Central  Hudson 
Company's  Lines  to  several  of  the  cities  on  the  river 
south  of  Albany. 

Passengers  on  the  boats  travel  in  comfort  and  safety, 
for  the  days  of  steamboat  racing  are  past  and  the 
cheap  rate  competition,  Avhich  overcrowded  the  boats, 
exists  no  longer.    To-day  the  journey  up  and  down  the 


The  Steamboats  of  To-day  101 

river  is  made  on  modern  boats,  the  passengers  enter- 
tained with  delightful  music  from  stringed  orchestras 
and  at  night  with  searchlight  exhibitions.  These  are 
indeed  beautiful,  the  cultivated  hillsides,  handsome 
villas  of  the  wealthy  and  rugged  grandeur  of  the  rocky 
Highlands  being  brought  out  in  a  series  of  wonderful 
pictures  as  the  boats,  twinkling  with  a  thousand  electric 
lights  of  their  own,  move  slowly  along  the  river.  It  is 
not  only  the  passengers  that  enjoy  these  nightly  illumi- 
nations of  unusual  beauty.  The  dwellers  on  the  river 
banks  know  just  when  to  expect  them  and  almost  set 
their  clocks,  say  their  prayers  and  go  to  bed  after  the 
night  boat  has  passed. 

Some  of  the  newer  boats  now  in  service  on  the  river 
are  the  Homer  Ramsdell,  the  Newhurgh,  the  Onteora, 
the  Albany,  New  York  and  Hendrick  Hudson,  of  the 
Day  Line,  the  Adirondack  and  C.  W.  Morse,  of  the 
Night  Line  to  Albany. 

Of  these  the  Hudson  and  Morse  are  the  newest  and 
are  of  a  type  so  distinctly  in  advance  of  the  others,  an 
extended  note  of  them  will  be  of  interest. 

The  Hendrick  Hudson  is  the  second  steamer  of  that 
name  that  has  plied  the  river.  They  were  probably 
named  Hendrick  instead  of  Henry  because  of  some 
confusion  arising  from  the  English  discoverer  of  the 
river  having  come  to  this  country  in  a  Dutch  vessel  and 
under  the  Dutch  flag.  From  whatever  cause  it  arises, 
it  is  the  fact  that  half  of  the  time  Hudson  is  referred 


lOvJ  Old  Steamboat  Days 

to  as  Ilcndrick  and  it  no  doubt  is  a  more  picturesque 
rendering  of  the  name. 

The  Ilcndrick  Hudson  was  built  on  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson  at  Newburgh  and  launched  March  .'Jl,  1906. 
She  is  three  hundred  and  ninety  feet  long,  forty-three 
feet  beam  and  eighty-two  feet  over  the  guards.  She 
draws  but  eight  feet  of  water.  Her  hull  is  of  steel  divided 
into  seven  water-tight  compartments,  with  two  collision 
bulkheads.  She  has  five  decks,  three  of  which  are  for 
the  exclusive  use  of  passengers,  of  which  she  can  carry 
five  thousand,  no  space  being  reserved  for  freight. 
The  engine  is  of  the  three  cylinder  compound  variety 
of  five  thousand  five  hundred  horse  power  with  a  seven 
foot  stroke.  The  paddle  wheels  are  twenty-four  feet 
in  diameter,  of  the  feathering  type,  on  a  shaft  twenty- 
two  inches  in  diameter,  of  open  hearth  carbon  steel. 
One  of  the  new  features  of  this  boat  is  the  fact  that  the 
crank  shaft  is  below  the  main  deck  line,  made  possible 
by  the  small  diameter  of  the  paddle  wheels,  but  adding 
greatly  to  the  comfort  and  convenience  of  the  passen- 
gers. No  sacrifice  of  speed  has  been  made  by  this  im- 
provement as  the  Hudson  can  make  twenty-three  miles 
an  hour  easily. 

The  boat  is  magnificently  furnished  in  hard  woods 
and  handsomely  decorated.  The  dining  room  on  the 
main  deck  aft  and  surrounded  with  large  plate  glass 
windows,  is  finished  in  mahogany,  as  are  the  saloons 
on  the  upper  decks. 


The  Steamboats  of  To-day  103 

A  grand  staircase  leads  to  a  large  observation  room 
on  the  upper  deck,  over  which  is  a  handsome  stained 
glass  dome.  In  the  forward  saloon  is  a  suspended 
band  stand  and  so  situated  that  it  is  estimated  the 
concerts  given  by  the  orchestra,  which  are  a  great 
feature  on  the  boats  of  this  line,  can  be  heard  by  at 
least  three  thousand  seated  passengers.  There  are  a 
number  of  private  drawing  rooms  furnished  in  Louis 
XVI,  Japanese,  French-Empire,  Dutch  and  Colonial 
styles  and  a  large  writing  room  in  polished  teakwood. 
Every^'here  throughout  the  boat  are  large  plate  glass 
windows,  affording  passengers  an  opportunity  to  view 
the  beautiful  scenery  of  the  river.  She  is  steered  by 
steam,  has  her  own  electric  light  equipment  and  in 
short  an  attempt  has  been  made  to  supply  every  com- 
fort and  convenience  that  the  most  exacting  passengers 
could  desire. 

A  new  Day  Line  boat,  companion  to  the  Hudson,  is 
about  to  be  laid  down  on  the  ways  in  Marvel's  Yards, 
at  Newburgh,  and  is  to  be  finished  in  time  for  the  sum- 
mer traffic  in  1909.  She  will  be  named  the  Robert  Ful- 
ton. The  boat  will  be  415  feet  long,  85  feet  beam,  62 
feet  from  her  keel  to  the  top  of  the  pilot  house.  The 
engines  will  be  6,500  horse  power  and  the  boat  will  be 
licensed  to  carry  6,000  passengers. 

The  C.  W.  Morse  is  one  of  the  longest  side  wheel 
steamers  afloat.  She  is  four  hundred  and  twent}'-seven 
feet  over  all,  fifty  feet  six  inches  beam,  but  ninety  feet 


104  Old  Steamboat  Days 

over  guards.  The  load  draft  is  but  nine  feet.  The  hull 
is  of  steel,  divided  in  eight  water-tight  compartments 
with  collision  bulkheads.  She  has  four  steel  masts. 
On  the  lower  deck  are  accommodations  for  fireman 
and  deckhands  and  a  saloon  with  berths  for  passengers, 
besides  room  for  the  boilers  and  dynamos  for  supplying 
two  thousand  five  hundred  electric  lights  all  through  the 
boat  and  the  thirty-six  inch  search  light  on  the  pilot 
house.  The  kitchens,  barrooms  and  pantries  are  also 
on  this  deck. 

The  main  deck  forward  is  reserved  for  freight,  but 
aft,  the  entire  room  is  a  handsomely  fitted  up  lobby 
and  magnificently  appointed  dining  room,  in  richly 
carved  mahogany  woodwork  and  lighted  with  two 
hundred  and  twenty-five  electric  lights,  held  in  green 
bronze  fixtures.  This  room  will  seat  three  hundred 
comfortably.  The  main  staircase  leads  from  the  lobby 
to  the  grand  saloon,  which  is  twenty-eight  feet  high 
with  a  domed  ceiling  in  white  and  gold  and  sur- 
rounded with  two  galleries  having  highly  ornamented 
guard  rails  of  mahogany  and  bronze.  Staterooms  with 
brass  bedsteads  and  parlors  de  luxe  with  bath  rooms 
and  toilets  can  be  entered  from  the  saloon  direct  or 
communicating  corridors,  richly  carpeted.  There  is 
also  a  passenger  elevator  on  the  boat.  In  all  there  are 
four  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  sleeping  apartments 
furnished  in  varying  degrees  of  elegance.  She  is  li- 
censed to  carry  two  thousand  passengers. 


The  Steamboats  of  To-day  105 

The  boat  is  four  stories,  or  decks,  high  and  the  floor 
of  the  pilot  house  is  forty  feet  above  water  level.  She 
is  steered  by  steam  and  every  movement  of  the  vessel 
can  be  directed  from  the  pilot  house.  The  engines, 
which  are  of  the  vertical  type,  are  four  thousand  five 
hundred  horse  power,  cylinder  eighty-one  inches  in 
diameter,  twelve  foot  stroke,  and  the  boilers  are  four 
in  number  and  are  thirty-three  feet  long,  nine  feet 
six  inches  in  diameter  and  there  are  two  smokestacks. 
The  paddle  wheels  are  of  the  feathering  type  variety, 
thirty  feet  in  diameter,  and  the  paddle  wheel  shaft  is 
twenty-four  inches  in  diameter.  It  was  a  clever  piece 
of  marine  engineering  to  produce  so  huge  a  steamer, 
when  the  draught  of  the  boat  was  restricted  to  nine  feet 
loaded  on  account  of  the  shallow  water  near  Albany, 
but  the  designer  appears  to  have  wrestled  most  suc- 
cessfully with  the  difficult  problem  with  which  he  had 
to  contend. 

Another  type  of  modern  steamboat,  differing  entirely 
from  those  described,  is  the  Ashury  Park.  She  is  of 
the  propeller  type.  Though  not  designed  especially 
for  the  Hudson,  she  leaves  daily  from  the  North  River 
side  of  the  city  of  New  York  for  Sandy  Hook  and  is 
frequently  seen  by  the  travelers  on  the  river.  The 
Sandy  Hook  route  is  operated  by  the  Central  Railroad 
of  New  Jersey  and  is  for  the  special  benefit  of  the 
patrons  of  the  shore  resorts  on  the  Jersey  coast.  All 
of  the  boats  of  this  line,  the  Monmouth  and  Sandy  Hook, 


106  Old  Steamboat  Days 

arc  propellers  and  very  speedy.  The  latest  .addition  to 
the  fleet,  the  Asburij  Park,  built  by  the  Cramps  and 
put  on  in  1903,  is  the  fastest  on  the  line.  She  is  three 
hunilrcd  and  seven  feet  long,  forty-two  feet  beam  and 
fifty-one  feet  over  her  guards.  The  hull  is  steel  with  six 
water-tigiit  compartments,  and  forward  and  aft  there 
are  collision  bulkheads.  She  draws  but  eleven  feet  of 
water  on  account  of  the  shoals  inside  the  Hook.  Her 
appointments  for  the  accommodation  of  passengers — 
she  is  licensed  to  carry  two  thousand  one  hundred  and 
fifty-nine — are  of  the  most  complete  character.  Her 
grand  saloon,  one  hundred  and  ninety-five  feet  long, 
is  finished  in  quartered  oak,  and  large  plate  plass  win- 
dows afford  the  traveler  most  dehghtful  views  of  the 
shipping  in  river  and  bay.  There  are  nineteen  state- 
rooms and  four  drawing  rooms  are  also  provided. 
She  has  two  engines  of  the  four  cylinder,  triple  type, 
of  six  thousand  horse  power  and  the  boat  has  developed 
a  speed  of  twenty  and  five  one-hundredths  knots.  This 
means  she  can  make  the  run  to  the  Atlantic  Higlilands 
at  Sandy  Hook,  a  distance  of  eighteen  miles,  in  one 
hour  and  five  minutes  with  the  regularity  of  a  railroad 
time-table.  Indeed  she  runs  in  close  connection  with 
railroad  trains  that  carry  the  passengers  from  the  land- 
ing point  to  Sea  Girt,  Long  Branch,  Ocean  Grove  and 
other  popular  resorts. 

Two   new   boats,   one   for  the  People's    Line    and 
the  other  for  the  Citizen's  Line  to   be  built  on  the 


,f  t- "y  ^'^i^'i 


-trf^^l 


The  Steamboats  of  To-day  107 

general  lines  of  the  Morse,  have  been  contracted  for, 
both  of  which  will  be  ready  for  the  summer  season 
of  1908.  They  will  have  steel  hulls,  and  the  larger 
one  of  the  two,  will  be  four  hundred  and  forty  feet  long 
haAang  over  five  hundred  staterooms  and  accommoda- 
tions for  two  thousand  passengers.  Every  convenience 
will  be  provided  and  they  are  expected  to  be  the  most 
luxurious  river  craft  afloat. 

The  name  of  the  new  People's  Line  boat  will  be  the 
Princeton  and  the  Citizen's  Line  new  boat  will  be 
named  the  Knickerbocker  repeating  the  name  of  a  pop- 
ular steamer  in  the  passenger  service  on  the  river  in 
1844-5. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

HUDSON-FULTON    MEMORIALS 

THE  names  of  Henry  Hudson  and  Robert  Fulton 
will  be  borne  in  large  letters  on  the  pages  of  his- 
tory, so  long  as  the  river  that  was  the  scene  of  their 
great  achievements  finds  its  way  to  the  sea.  The  Ter- 
centennial of  Hudson's  discovery  and  the  Centennial 
of  Fulton's  successful  application  of  steam  to  naviga- 
tion will  furnish  opportunities,  however,  for  New  York 
to  erect  such  memorials  as  will  suitably  honor  the 
memories  of  the  two  men.  It  is  indeed  strange  that 
neither  has  heretofore  been  honored  in  any  way,  unless 
an  exception  is  noted  on  account  of  the  panel  in  the 
Astor  bronze  doors  in  Trinity  Church,  which  represents 
Hudson  on  the  deck  of  the  Half  Moon  off  Manhattan 
Island,  and  the  tablet  on  Fulton's  grave. 

Two  important  committees  are  at  work  on  the  prop- 
osition and  they  include  in  their  membership,  some  of 
the  best  known  men  in  the  country. 

The  scheme  to  suitably  celebrate  the  Tercentennial 
of  Hudson's  discovery  took  its  first  tangible  shape  on 


Hudson-Fulton  Memorials  109 

February  15,  1905,  when  Mr.  Robert  Roosevelt,  uncle 
of  President  Roosevelt,  invited  a  number  of  gentlemen 
to  meet  with  him  and  the  subject  was  discussed.  The 
attendants  at  that  conference  represented  most  of  the 
patriotic  and  historical  societies  of  the  city  of  New 
York.  It  was  determined  to  secure  the  creation  of  a 
commission  under  act  of  the  Legislature  to  carry  out 
the  object  of  the  conference.  This  was  done  and 
December  5,  1905,  the  Hudson  Tercentenary  Joint 
Committee  was  duly  organized  at  the  New  York  City 
Hall. 

The  New  York  Board  of  Trade  and  Transportation, 
and  others,  acting  quite  independently,  having  deter- 
mined that  some  celebration  should  mark  the  Cen- 
tenary of  Steam  Navigation,  on  July  13,  1905,  or- 
ganized the  Robert  Fulton  Memorial  Association  with 
Gen.  Fred  D.  Grant  as  president,  who  has  since  been 
succeeded  by  Mr.  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,  a  great- 
grandson  of  the  "  Commodore  "  who  broke  the  river 
monopoly. 

It  did  not  take  long  after  these  two  separate  move- 
ments had  been  inaugurated,  for  those  at  the  head  of 
each  to  appreciate  the  fact  there  was  such  a  general 
tendency  of  scope  and  purpose  as  to  suggest  a  con- 
solidation of  endeavor,  though  the  actual  anniversaries 
fall  in  1907  and  1909  respectively.  A  special  legislative 
act.  Chapter  325  of  the  Laws  of  1906,  was  passed  with 
a  view  of  co-ordinating  the  two  propositions;  General 


110  QUI  Steamboat  Days 

Stewart  \j.  AVoodford,  ex-United  States  Minister  to 
Spain,  has  been  elected  president  of  the  joint  commis- 
sion and  tlie  success  of  the  celebration  is  assured. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  combined  associations  to 
cause  suitable  memorials  to  be  erected  to  Hudson 
and  Fulton,  to  be  followed  with  a  joint  celebration  on 
the  waters  of  the  Hudson  that  will  bring  together, 
possibly,  the  greatest  number  and  finest  types  of  steam 
craft  ever  assembled.  The  entire  week  beginning  Sep- 
tember 20th,  1909,  will  be  given  over  to  land  and  water 
parades  and  commemorative  exercises  in  the  schools 
and  by  the  Historical  Societies. 

The  Hudson  Memorial  Committee  has  already  ad- 
vanced its  plans  in  a  large  measure  toward  completion. 
These  provide  for  an  imposing  Hudson  Memorial 
Bridge  to  span  Spuyten  Du}^il  Creek,  connecting  the 
Boulevard  system  of  Manhattan  Island  with  the  park- 
ways of  Westchester  County.  There  has  already  been 
appropriated  $1,000,000  by  the  City  of  New  York 
to  make  a  beginning,  and  the  total  cost  of  the 
contemplated  improvement  is  likely  to  approximate 
$5,000,000. 

The  Memorial  Bridge,  as  planned,  is  to  span  the 
Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek  at  a  height  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy  feet.  The  central  steel  span  of  the  bridge  will 
be  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  in  length,  the 
largest  in  the  world  with  a  single  exception,  that  being 
the  steel  arch  bridge  over  the  gorge  at  Niagara,  which 


Hudson-Fulton  Memorials  111 

is  fifteen  feet  longer.  From  abutment  to  abutment  the 
length  of  the  bridge  will  be  two  thousand  five  hundred 
feet.  The  stone  viaduct  approaches  are  to  be  carried 
on  a  series  of  masonry  arches.  The  structure  will  be 
one  hundred  feet  wide,  affording  two  sidewalks,  each 
eighteen  feet  wide,  and  a  central  roadway  of  sixty  feet. 
No  attempt  will  be  made  at  elaborate  decoration  on 
the  structure  itself.  Its  grace  of  outline  and  massive- 
ness  are  relied  upon  to  produce  an  appreciation  of  its 
solidity  and  impressiveness,  but  parklike  effects  at  the 
approaches  will  be  introduced  and  a  knoll  some  thirty- 
five  feet  in  height  at  the  southern  end  will  be  retained 
and  it  is  expected  to  crown  this  with  some  suitable 
monument  to  Hudson.  The  city  is  not  expected,  in 
the  plans  of  the  commission,  to  defray  the  cost  of  this 
memorial  as  it  is  believed  that  a  popular  subscription 
will  produce  sufficient  funds  to  insure  its  erection  by 
the  time  the  bridge  has  been  constructed  and  opened 
for  the  use  of  the  public. 

The  views  that  will  be  obtained  from  the  bridge  when 
completed  will  be  among  the  finest  that  can  be  secured 
anywhere  near  the  great  city.  Immediately  below  will 
be  the  Harlem  River  and  the  ship  canal  to  the  east.  To 
the  west  will  lie  the  Hudson,  showing  a  stretch  of  water 
several  miles  in  length,  teeming  with  river  craft,  and 
beyond,  the  Palisades  on  the  New  Jersey  shore.  To 
the  north  the  eye  will  take  in  the  heights  above  River- 
dale  and  the  wooded  hills  of  Van  Cortlandt  Park,  and 


112  Old  Steamboat  Days 

to  the  south,  extended  views  of  what  is  rapidly  becom- 
ing:: the  <i;reatest  city  of  tlie  world.  The  panorama  that 
will  spreail  in  every  direction  before  the  visitors  to  the 
Memorial  Bridge,  will  present  pictures  that  will  linger 
long  in  the  memory  of  those  who  shall  live  to  see  the 
work  successfully  completed. 

The  Fulton  Monument  Association  is  planning  to 
erect  a  Monumental  Water  Gate  on  the  Hudson  River 
shore  front  at  West  114th  and  llOtli  streets  and  River- 
side Drive,  harmonizing  and  adding  to  the  dignity  and 
beauty  of  the  tomb  of  General  Grant  and  the  buildings 
of  Columbia  University  that  crown  the  hillside  at  that 
point.  Several  well-known  architects  are  now  at  work 
on  the  plan  for  tliis  Monumental  Water  Gate,  but  the 
design  that  will  be  finally  selected  has  not  as  yet  been 
determined.  Every  endeavor  will  be  made,  however,  to 
decide  upon  the  plan  in  time  to  put  the  corner  stone  of 
the  monument  in  place  on  November  14,  1907,  with  ap- 
propriate ceremonies.  The  date  named  is  the  birthday 
of  Robert  Fulton  and  the  year  marks  the  first  century  of 
the  successful  application  of  steam  to  navigation.  It  is 
the  purpose  in  building  the  Water  Gate  not  only  to 
honor  the  genius  of  Fulton,  but  at  the  same  time  to 
pro\ade  a  suitable  landing  place  for  distinguished 
visitors  who  reach  the  city  in  ships.  Nothing  of  the 
kind  has  yet  been  provided.  The  beautiful  park  at 
the  Battery  might  well  have  been  reserved  for  such 
purposes  instead  of  having  been  given  over  to  elevated 


Robert  Fi^ltox 

From  a  j)h()tograph  of  the  statue  on  the 

Fulton  Ferry  House  in  Brooklyn 


Hudson-Fulton  Memorials  113 

railroad  structures,  landing  places  for  emigrants,  ferry 
slips  and  docks  for  excursion  steamers. 

A  third  proposition  taking  tangible  shape  and  form 
is  the  establishment  of  a  Hudson-Fulton  Memorial 
Park  at  Verplancks  Point,  forty  miles  up  the  river 
and  directly  opposite  historic  Stony  Point,  which  has 
already  been  secured  for  a  Memorial  Park.  It  is  pro- 
posed to  locate  on  Verplancks  Point  some  form  of 
museum  and  exhibition  that  will  foster  a  Uvely  appre- 
ciation of  all  the  points  of  interest  that  are  associated 
with  the  history  and  achievements  on  the  river.  The 
State  of  New  York  has  already  been  asked  to  pass  a 
law  appropriating  $125,000  for  this  purpose. 

The  proposed  park  is  to  include  many  historical 
points  and  will  do  much  to  preserve  the  scenic  beauties 
of  the  river.  The  site  of  Fort  Fayette  and  the  remains 
of  a  shore  battery  that  did  service  in  the  Revolution, 
the  old  King's  ferry  landing  leading  to  the  Stony  Point 
battlefield  on  the  opposite  shore,  the  site  of  Washing- 
ton's headquarters  and  the  camp  ground  of  the  allied 
American  and  French  troops,  under  Washington  and 
Rochambeau,  in  1782,  are  all  included  in  the  area 
which  it  is  sought  to  acquire.  Hudson  anchored  the 
Half  Moon  on  his  trip  up  the  river  in  1609  off  the 
shore  of  Verplancks  Point;  so  there  will  be  added  in- 
terest to  the  Memorial  Park  on  that  account. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


HENRY    HUDSON  S   RIVER 


WHEN  Henry  Hudson,  an  Englishman  com- 
manding a  Dutch  vessel  and  crew,  sailed  up 
the  Hudson,  he  thought  he  was  going  to  China.  Like 
Columbus  and  all  the  early  navigators  to  the  New 
World,  he  was  in  quest  of  the  same  fabled  Northwest 
Passage.  This  was  to  make  a  short  cut  to  India  and 
the  Orient  and  had  been  sought  for  years,  but  which 
will  never  be  realized  until  Uncle  Sam  jfinishes  the 
Panama  Canal. 

Hudson  had  made  two  pre^^ous  trips  under  English 
auspices  and  failed.  The  third  attempt  was  made 
under  the  Dutch  flag  and  in  a  vessel,  a  very  small  one, 
almost  a  yacht,  called  the  Halj  Moon. 

The  beautiful  Bay  of  New  York  was  first  entered 
by  Hudson,  who  rounded  Sandy  Hook  August  3,  1609, 
and  kept  on  his  course  to  the  north  past  what  is  now 
Manhattan  Island  and  up  what  is  now  the  Hudson 
River. 

Here  surely  was  a  great  stream  of  water,  deep  enough 


Henry  Hudson's  River  115 

to  indicate  a  strait,  with  the  walls  of  the  Palisades  sug- 
gesting the  gigantic  erosions  of  the  glacial  age,  wit- 
nesses of  the  mighty  forces  of  ice  and  water  that  swept 
down  from  the  northward  and  made  the  Hudson  Val- 
ley what  it  is. 

Is  there  any  wonder  Hudson  and  his  crew  rejoiced 
as  they  sailed  northward,  satisfied  that  the  mariner's 
goal  for  hundreds  of  years,  the  Northwest  Passage,  had 
at  last  been  found  ?  Every  mile  of  the  way  seemed  to 
add  to  the  certainty.  The  broad  expanse  of  water 
three  and  a  half  miles  wide  at  Tarrytown,  now  the 
Tappan  Zee  (Sea),  the  still  wider  Haverstraw  Bay  all 
hastened  the  mariner  and  his  men  to  the  open  ocean 
they  believed  must  lie  ahead.  Then  came  the  High- 
lands, the  Dunderberg  and  Anthony's  Nose,  clothed 
with  their  primeval  forests,  looldng  like  veritable  head- 
land capes  guarding  the  secrets  of  the  undiscovered 
country  and  waters  beyond.  What  a  journey  of  mys- 
terious enchantment  and  of  unexpected  developments 
this  first  trip  of  the  Halj  Moon  up  the  Hudson  must 
have  afforded ! 

It  was  not  until  Hudson  began  to  detect  the  shoaling 
water  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Hudson,  his 
dreams  of  the  Northwest  Passage  began  to  fade  and 
the  fact  he  was  rapidly  approaching  the  head  of  a  great 
river  dawned  upon  him.  He  pushed  on,  however,  to 
just  below  where  Albany,  the  capital  of  the  State,  now 
stands  on  the  western  bank  and  from  that  point  sent 


116  Old  Steamboat  Days 

small  boats  still  further  up  the  river  to  ascertain  if 
there  was  any  way  out.  They  returned  with  the  dis- 
appointing statement  that  tiie  stream  became  rapidly 
shallow  and  that  they  would  have  to  return  to  the  sea, 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  away  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  they  had  been  exploring  for  so  many  days. 

Some  of  Hudson's  men  evidently  left  the  river  in 
their  small  boat  expedition  and  went  up  the  Mohawk, 
for  to-day  there  is  a  hamlet  midway  on  the  peninsula 
made  by  the  two  rivers,  called  Half  Moon,  which,  tra- 
dition says,  is  so  called  because  some  of  the  first  ex- 
plorers from  the  little  Dutch  vessel  visited  the  place 
when  endeavoring  to  ascertain  the  limitations  of  Henry 
Hudson's  great  discovery. 

The  commander  of  the  Half  Moon  spent  several 
days  in  visiting  the  friendly  Indians  living  on  the 
shores.  After  retracing  his  voyage  and  having  an  un- 
fortunate fight  with  some  Indians,  he  again  stood  out 
to  sea  on  October  4th,  and  never  returned  to  the 
beautiful  river  he  had  discovered,  which  was  to  be 
known  by  his  name  for  all  time  and  preserve  for  him  a 
place  in  American  history. 

Hudson  kept  a  journal  of  the  many  points  he  had 
noticed  about  his  discovery.  He  called  it  the  Great 
River  and  also  the  River  of  the  Mountains.  Some  of 
his  old  crew  returned  the  following  year  and  soon  the 
Dutch  began  to  settle  on  Manhattan  Island.  They 
called  it  the  River  Mauritus,  after  Prince  Maurice  of 


Henry  Hudson's  River  117 

Nassau.  It  was  also  named  the  North  River  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  South  or  Delaware  River,  but  it 
came  to  be  called,  and  will  always  be  known  as  the 
Hudson,  after  the  man  who  located  it  on  the  map  of 
the  New  World. 

An  unkind  fate  appears  to  have  followed  Hudson  to 
the  close  of  his  life.  His  crew  mutinied  on  the  return 
voyage  and  when  he  reached  Dartmouth,  England,  in 
November,  the  Government  detained  both  him  and  his 
ship  on  the  pretext  that  an  Englishman  had  no  right 
to  be  in  the  employ  of  foreign  nations,  making  dis- 
coveries that  would  not  redound  to  the  credit  of  Eng- 
land. She  paid  but  little  attention,  however,  to  the 
Dutchman's  colony  at  New  Amsterdam  until  years 
afterward,  when  the  importance  of  the  river  and  the 
settlement  on  Manhattan  Island  had  become  mani- 
fest. Hudson  was  not  permitted  to  return  to  Holland 
and  the  crew  of  the  Hal]  Moon  was  not  allowed  to 
carry  the  news  of  the  discovery  to  those  who  had  sent 
her  on  her  voyage,  until  the  following  July. 

The  spring  of  1610  witnessed  Hudson's  departure 
from  England  on  his  last  voyage,  in  the  Discoverie, 
and  this  time  in  the  employ  of  the  Muscovy  Company. 
He  was  still  seeking  the  Northwest  Passage  when  he 
entered  the  great  sheet  of  water  surrounded  by  deso- 
late shores,  which  still  bears  the  name  of  its  discoverer, 
Hudson's  Bay.  But  the  crew  mutinied  and  Hudson, 
his  son  and  seven  men  were  put  into  a  small  boat  and 


1 1 8  Old  Steamboat  Days 

told  to  shift  lor  tlu'iiisolvrs.  Undoubtedly  the  great 
navigator  and  his  c-ompanions  met  an  unmerited  fate 
on  the  stormy  waters  of  the  bay,  for  they  were  never 
heard  of  again. 

The  people  in  every  land  love  their  rivers.  In  some 
countries  they  are  sacred.  In  others  they  bring  fertility 
and  wealth  to  the  lovely  valleys  through  which  they 
flow.  Their  praises  are  sung  in  the  poetry  of  the  peo- 
ple and  told  of  in  story.  ^Vhen,  as  is  often  the  case, 
they  form  the  boundaries  between  foreign  States,  na- 
tions have  plunged  into  war  in  order  that  the  free 
passage  of  these  great  natural  waterways  might  be 
maintained. 

To  none  has  been  given  a  more  beautiful  and  useful 
stream  than  that  which  sweeps  its  majestic  course 
from  the  forests  of  the  Adirondacks,  past  the  cities  that 
line  its  shores,  through  the  rocky  Highlands  and  by 
the  parapetted  Palisades,  until  it  mingles  its  waters 
with  those  of  the  bay  in  front  of  the  great  metropolis, 
the  very  gateway  through  which  by  far  the  largest  in- 
flux of  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  namely,  its  people, 
have  reached  the  New  World. 

x\  river  three  hundred  and  twenty  miles  in  length, 
one-half  of  which  is  open  to  unobstructed  navigation 
by  sail  and  steam  for  the  larger  boats,  is  a  great 
asset  in  the  building  of  a  state.  The  Hudson  has 
had  much  to  do  with  making  New  York  the  Empire 


Henry  Hudson's  River  119 

State  and  the  city  at  its  outlet  the  metropoHs  of  the 
countrj'. 

From  the  first  the  Hudson  played  a  most  important 
part  in  the  colonization  of  America.  When  the  young 
colonies  had  grown  strong  and  asserted  their  freedom 
and  the  War  of  Independence  was  on,  with  what 
solicitous  care  did  Washington  and  his  generals  fight 
to  maintain  the  Hudson  Valley.  They  were  fully  alive 
to  the  supreme  necessity  of  keeping  Burgoyne's  forces 
in  the  north  from  making  any  coalition  w4th  those  in 
the  south,  under  Howe  and  Clinton. 

The  British  commanders  also  realized  the  advantage 
of  the  control  of  the  Hudson  and  planned  to  secure  it. 
Every  vantage  point  along  the  Hudson  was  fortified 
by  the  Americans.  Fort  Washington  on  Manhattan 
Island  and  Fort  Lee  opposite,  Stony  Point  and  its 
fortifications.  Fort  Montgomery  and  the  redoubts  at 
various  places  along  the  shore,  make  the  river  one  of 
rare  historical  interest.  It  w^as  on  the  Hudson  the 
patriots  built  their  fire  rafts,  to  float  down  on  the  British 
ships  and  it  was  at  West  Point  the  great  chain  was 
stretched  across  the  stream,  to  obstruct  any  passage  of 
the  river  the  enemy  might  attempt  to  make. 

The  surrender  of  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga  after  defeats 
in  two  battles  at  Bemis  Heights  in  1777  and  the  re- 
capture of  Stony  and  Verplancks  Points  in  1779,  from 
the  British,  only  made  the  enemy  more  determined 
than  ever  to  control  the  river  and  led  up  to  that  base 


HO  Old  Stcainl)()al    Days 

attempt  (<f  Clinton  to  secure  through  Benedict  Arnold's 
perfidy,  what  he  had  failed  to  accomplish  by  the  fair 
means  of  assault,  the  occupation  of  West  Point  and  the 
key  to  the  whole  situation. 

What  an  absorbing  chapter  of  American  history  this 
treason  of  Arnold  and  the  sacrifice  of  Andre  makes 
and  how  the  recollection  of  it  all  comes  to  one,  as  he 
wends  his  way  through  the  beautiful  Highlands  and 
views  the  handsome  buildings  that  now  crown  the  bluff, 
in  which  the  future  defenders  of  the  nation  are  being 
educated  in  the  arts  of  war. 

Indian  legends,  Dutch  Sprookje,  the  romance  of  real 
life  and  the  tales  of  fiction  hover  over  nearly  every  mile 
of  the  river's  course  from  its  source  in  the  mountains 
to  its  outlet  in  the  great  ocean. 

Indian  Head,  a  noble  pinnacle  of  rock  in  the  Palisades, 
was  a  veritable  watch  tower  for  the  red  men,  from  which 
they  detected  the  approach  of  their  foes.  But,  alas! 
the  ravages  of  the  stone  contractors  with  their  crushers 
have  ruined  its  former  rugged  beauty. 

The  broad  expanse  of  the  Tappan  Zee  brings  to  mind 
the  story  of  the  hapless  Rambout  and  his  phantom 
ship,  the  Flying  Dutchman.  "Sunny  Side,"  the  home 
of  W'ashington  Irving,  on  the  eastern  shore  at  Irving- 
ton,  is  suggestive  of  the  headless  Horseman  of  Sleepy 
Hollow,  which  is  just  above  Tarrytown,  and  where 
Irving  lies  buried  beside  a  quaint  old  church,  the  bricks 


Henry  Hudson's  River  121 

in  which  were  imported  from  Holland  two  centuries  ago 
by  the  pious  Dutchmen. 

Bold  Hook  Mountain,  another  point  of  attack  by 
the  voracious  stone  contractor,  whose  picturesque 
beauty  some  public-spirited  citizens  are  seeking  to 
preserve  from  further  spoliation,  marks  the  northern 
limitation  of  the  Tappan  Zee.  This  headland  was  the 
Verdrietig  (tedious)  Hoeck  of  the  first  Dutch  navi- 
gators and  so  called  because  it  remained  so  long  in 
sight  and  took  so  many  tacks  to  round  on  their  trips 
up  the  river. 

Once  around  the  Hook,  traverse  "  Haverstroo  "  Bay, 
passing  the  scene  of  Mad  Anthony  Waynes'  attack  at 
Stony  Point,  you  are  soon  well  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
beautiful  scenery.  Dunderberg  and  Anthony's  Nose, 
a  mile  or  two  beyond,  form  the  portals  to  this  enchant- 
ing section  of  the  river  whose  culminating  beauty  is  at 
West  Point  from  which  Crow's  Nest,  Storm  King, 
Cloud  Rest  and  Breakneck  Ridge  are  all  in  the  superb 
panorama. 

Further  north  the  "Highlands"  recede  from  the 
river.  To  the  east  are  the  Berkshires,  to  the  west  are 
the  Catskills  and  the  haunts  of  Rip  Van  Winkle. 

These  are  the  river  stretches  and  those  above,  that 
have  brought  from  the  pens  of  Washington  Irving,  Fitz 
Green  Halleck,  Charles  F.  Hoffman,  N.  P.  Willis,  Joseph 
Rodman  Drake  and  Fenimore  Cooper,  some  of  their 
choicest  contributions  to  English  hterature  and  induced 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX  I 

THE  CLERMONT'S  FIRST  REGISTRY* 

No.  108. 

Enrollment  in  conformity  to  an  Act  of  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States  of  America  entitled  "An  Act  for  enrolling  and 
licensing  ships  or  vessels  to  be  employed  in  the  coasting  trade 
and  fisheries,  and  for  regulating  the  same." 

Robert  R.  Livingston,  of  Clermont, 
Columbia  County,  State  of  New  York, 

having  taken  and  subscribed  to  the  oath  required  by  the  said 
Act  and  having  sworn  that  he,  together  with  Robert  Fulton, 
of  the  City  of  New  York,  are  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
and  sole  owners  of  the  ship  or  vessel  called  the  North  River 
Steamboat  of  Clermont,  whereof  Samuel  Wiswall  is  at  present 
master,  and  as  he  hath  sworn  he  is  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States,  and  that  the  said  ship  or  vessel  was  built  in  the  City 
of  New  York,  in  the  year  1807,  as  per  enrollment  173  issued 
at  this  port  on  the  3d.  And  Peter  A.  Schenck,  Surveyor  of 
the  Port,  having  certified  that  day  of  September,  1807,  now 
given  up,  the  vessel  being  enlarged,  the  said  ship  or  vessel 
has  one  deck  and  two  masts,  and  that  her  length  is  149  ft.; 
breadth,  17  ft.  11  in.;  depth,  7  ft.,  and  that  she  measures 
182  48-95  tons.  That  she  is  a  square-sterned  boat,  has 
square  tuck;  no  quarter  galleries  and  no  figurehead.  Hands 
and  Seals,  May  14,  1808. 

*  Filed  in  the  New  York  Custom  House  after  her  enlargement, 
1808. 


HH  Old  Steamboat  Days 

n 

EARLY  STEAMBOAT  ADVERTISEMENTS 

The  first  newspaper  advertisement  of  passenger  service  by 
steamboat  is  the  following  announcement  of  the  times  of  de- 
parture and  the  rates  of  fare  on  the  Clermont : 

The  Public  is  Informed  How  to  Take  Passage  on  the 
Clermont 

"Sept.  2nd,  1807. 
"The  North  River  Steamboat  will  leave  Paulus  Hook 
ferry  on  Friday,  4th  of  September,  at  6  in  the  morning,  and 
arrive  at  Albany  on  Saturday  in  the  afternoon.     Provisions, 
good  berths,  and  accommodations  are  provided. 
"The  charge  to  each  passenger  as  follows: 

"To  Newburg 3     Dolls — Time,   14  hours. 

Poughkeepsie 4         "    —     "       17       " 

Esopus 43       "    —     "       20 

Hudson 5         "    —     "       30 

Albany 7         "    —     "       36 

"For  places  apply  to  Wm.  Vandervoort,  No  48  Courtland 
Street,  on  the  corner  of  Greenwich  Street." 

The  following  is  believed  to  be  the  second  steamboat 
advertisement  to  appear.  It  furnished  much  more  informa- 
tion to  the  public  as  to  the  accommodations  provided  for 
passengers  by  this  new  mode  of  transportation: 


Appendix 


129 


in  the  afternoon. 


evening. 


Steamboat 

"  For  the  Information  of  the  Public. 

"  The  Steamboat  will  leave  New  York  for  Albany  every 
Saturday  afternoon  exactly  at  6  o'clock,  and  will  pass 
West  Point  about     4  o'clock  Sunday  morning. 

Newburg  "         7         "  "  " 

Poughkeepsie  "       11         "  "  " 

Esopus  "         2 

Red  Hook  "         4 

Catskill  "         7 

Hudson  "        9 

"  She  will  leave  Albany  for  New  York  every  Wednesday 
morning  exactly  8  o'clock,  and  pass — 

Hudson  about     3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

Esopus  "         8 

Poughkeepsie  "12 

Newburg  "         4 

West  Point  "        7 

"  As  the  time  at  which  the  boat  may  arrive  at  the  different 
places  above  mentioned  may  vary  an  hour  more  or  less,  ac- 
cording to  the  advantage  or  disadvantage  of  wind  and  tide, 
those  who  wish  to  come  on  board  will  see  the  necessity  of 
being  on  the  spot  an  hour  before  the  time.  Persons  wishing 
to  come  on  board  from  any  other  landing  than  those  here 
specified,  can  calculate  the  time  the  boat  will  pass,  and  be 
ready  on  her  arrival. 

"  Innkeepers  or  boatmen,  who  bring  passengers  on  board  or 
take  them  ashore  from  any  part  of  the  river,  will  be  allowed 
one  shilling  for  each  person. 


evenmg. 
at   night. 
Thursday  morning. 


180  Old  Steamboat  Days 

Price  of  the  passage — from  New  York. 

To  West  Point $2.50 

"    Ncwburg 3.00 

**    Poughkeepsie 3.50 

'*    Esopus 4 .  00 

"   Red  Hook 4.50 

*'   Hudson 5.00 

"   Albany 7.00 

From  Albany. 

To  Hudson $2.00 

"   Red  Hook 3.00 

"   Esopus 3.50 

"   Poughkeepsie 4.00 

"   Newburg  and  West  Point 4 .  50 

•*   New  York 7.00 

"  All  the  passengers  are  to  pay  at  the  rate  of  $1.00  for  every 
twenty  miles,  and  half  a  dollar  for  every  meal  they  may  take. 

"  Children  from  1  to  5  years  of  age  to  pay  half  price,  pro- 
vided they  sleep  two  in  a  berth,  and  whole  price  for  each 
one  who  requests  to  occupy  a  whole  berth. 

"  Servants,  who  pay  two-thirds  price,  are  entitled  to  a  berth ; 
they  pay  half  price  if  they  do  not  have  a  berth. 

"  Every  passenger  paying  full  price  is  allowed  60  pounds  of 
baggage;  if  less  than  whole  price,  40  pounds.  They  are  to 
pay  at  the  rate  of  3  cents  per  pound  for  surplus  baggage. 
Storekeepers,  who  wish  to  carry  light  and  valuable  mer- 
chandise, can  be  accommodated  on  paying  3  cents  a  pound. 

"  Passengers  will  breakfast  before  they  come  aboard.     Din- 


Appendix  131 

ner  will  be  served  up  exactly  at  1  o'clock;  tea,  with  meats, 
which  is  also  supper,  at  8  o'clock  in  the  evening;  and  break- 
fast at  9  o'clock  in  the  morning.  No  one  has  a  claim  on  the 
steward  for  victuals  at  any  other  time." 

m 

THE  FIRST  SUCCESSFUL  TORPEDO 

Robert  Fulton's  Description  of  how  he  Destroyed 
THE  Brig  Dorothea,  in  Walmer  Roads,  England 

"To  convince  Mr.  Pitt  that  a  vessel  could  be  destroyed 
by  the  explosion  of  a  torpedo  under  her  bottom,"  writes 
Mr.  Fulton,  "a  strong-built  Danish  brig,  the  Dorothea, 
burthen  two  hundred  tons,  was  anchored  in  Walmer  Roads, 
near  Deal,  and  within  a  mile  of  Walmer  Castle,  the  then 
residence  of  IVIr.  Pitt.  Two  boats,  each  with  eight  men, 
commanded  by  Lieutenant  Robinson,  were  put  under  my 
direction.  I  prepared  two  empty  torpedoes  in  such  a  manner 
that  each  was  only  from  two  to  three  pounds  specifically 
heavier  than  salt  water  and  so  suspended  them  that  they 
hung  fifteen  feet  under  water. 

"They  were  then  tied  one  to  each  end  of  a  small  rope 
eighty  feet  long.  Thus  arranged,  and  the  brig  drawing 
twelve  feet  of  water,  the  fourteenth  day  of  October  was  spent 
in  practice.  Each  boat  having  a  torpedo  in  the  stern,  they 
started  from  the  shore  about  a  mile  above  the  brig  and  rowed 
down  toward  her;  the  uniting  line  of  the  torpedoes  being 
stretched  to  its  full  extent,  the  two  boats  were  distant  from 
each  other  about  seventy  feet;  thus  they  approached  in  such 


188  Old  Steamboat  Days 

H  inaniuT  fliat  one  boat  kept  the  larboard,  the  other  the  star- 
board side  of  the  brig  in  view. 

"St)  long  as  the  connecting  line  of  the  torpedo  passed  the 
buoy  of  the  brig  they  were  thrown  into  the  water  and  carried 
on  by  the  tide  until  the  connecting  line  showed  the  brig's 
cable;  the  tide  then  drove  them  under  her  body.  The  ex- 
periment being  repeated  several  times  taught  the  men  how 
to  act,  and  proved  to  my  satisfaction  that  when  properly 
placed  on  the  tide  the  torpedoes  would  invariably  go  under 
the  bottom  of  the  vessel." 

Fulton  continued  to  the  final  stage  of  his  experiment  and 
filled  one  of  the  torpedoes  with  180  pounds  of  powder  and 
set  its  clockwork  to  eighteen  minutes.  The  experiment  began 
on  October  15,  1805,  at  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

"At  forty  minutes  past  four,"  says  Fulton,  "  the  boats  rode 
toward  the  brig  and  the  torpedoes  were  thrown  into  the 
water,  the  tide  carried  them,  as  before  described,  under  the 
bottom  of  the  brig,  where,  at  the  expiration  of  eighteen  min- 
utes, the  explosion  appeared  to  raise  her  bodily  about  six 
feet.  She  separated  in  the  middle,  and  the  two  ends  went 
down. 

"In  twenty  seconds  nothing  was  to  be  seen  of  her,  except 
floating  fragments;  the  pumps  and  foremast  were  blown  out 
of  her,  the  fore-topsail  yard  was  thrown  up  to  the  cross  trees, 
the  four  chain  plates  with  their  boats  were  torn  from  her  sides, 
the  mizzen  chain  plates  and  shrouds,  being  stronger  than 
those  of  the  foremast,  or  the  shelf  being  more  forward  than 
aft,  the  mizzen  mast  was  broken  off  in  two  places;  these  dis- 
coveries were  made  by  means  of  the  pieces  which  were  found 
afloat." 


Appendix  133 

IV 

THE  FIRST  ENGINEER  OF  THE  CLERMONT 

"Robert  Fulton's  chief  engineer  was  Paul  A.  Sabbaton, 
who  supervised  the  building  of  all  of  the  Fulton  engines 
built  in  this  country  up  to  the  time  of  Fulton's  death.  Who 
the  first  engineer  of  the  Clermont  on  her  maiden  voyage  was 
we  do  not  know,  and  can  only  quote  an  interesting  item  in 
connection  therewith  which  appeared  in  the  columns  of  The 
Nautical  Gazette  under  date  of  Saturday,  July  29,  1871, 
as  follows:  'On  Monday  morning,  Charles  Dyke,  85  years 
of  age,  died  in  East  New  York,  at  the  residence  of  his  son-in- 
law,  William  E.  Smith.  Mr.  Dyke  was  born  on  the  13th  day 
of  June,  1786,  and  in  his  earlier  years  followed  the  trade  of  a 
carpenter.  He  was  at  one  time  carpenter  on  the  stage  of  the 
old  Park  Theatre.  Having  a  natural  talent  for  engineering, 
however,  he  turned  his  attention  to  that  business,  and  soon 
became  an  expert.  In  1807  Mr.  Dyke  was  engaged  as  assist- 
ant engineer  on  Robert  Fulton's  steamer  Clermont,  on  her 
first  trip  to  Albany.  The  chief  engineer  was  a  Scotchman, 
and  on  the  arrival  of  the  boat  at  the  point  of  destination,  he 
celebrated  the  event  by  a  rousing  spree,  the  result  of  which 
was  that  Fulton  discharged  him,  and  he  promoted  Mr.  Dyke 
to  his  position.  When  the  Fulton  Ferry  Line  was  first  estab- 
lished, Mr.  Dyke  was  engineer  of  the  first  boat.  He  also 
engineered  the  first  steamer  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi 
rivers  to  New  Orleans,  and  ran  Vanderbilt's  boats  to  Perth 
Amboy,  when  the  present  Commodore  was  a  captain  on  his 
own  craft.    On  one  of  his  trips  to  New  Orleans,  with  ord- 


^ 


134  Old  SlouTnl)()al  Days 

nance  and  ammunition  for  (Jen.  Jackson,  in  181-t,  Mr.  Dyke 
and  the  crow  wore  pressed  into  service.  They  fouglit  gallantly 
in  the  defense  of  that  city.  Mr.  Dyke  received  a  wound  in  the 
leg,  and  he  bore  the  scar  to  the  day  of  his  death.'  " 

Nautical  Gazette. 


THE  ONLY  KNOWN  STATUE  OF  FULTON 

"The  statue  of  Fulton,  which  was  ordered  about  a  year 
ago  by  the  Union  Ferry  Company,  was  this  morning  conveyed 
from  the  atelier  of  Messrs.  M.  J.  Seelig  &  Co.,  sculptors  and 
founders,  Maujer  street,  Williamsburgh,  and  placed  in  the 
niche  designated  for  it  in  ^ront  of  the  new  ferryhouse. 

"The  statue  is  ten  feet  six  inches  high,  modeled  by  Buberl, 
from  a  picture  of  Fulton,  by  Jarvis,  which  formerly  belonged 
to  Cadwallader  C.  Colden,  his  biographer,  and  which  was 
subsequently  given  by  Mrs.  Colden  to  the  late  Dr.  Vinton, 
in  the  possession  of  whose  family  it  now  remains.  This 
appears  to  be  the  only  portrait  of  Fulton  in  existence.  And 
Mr.  Pierrepont,  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  to  whom 
the  Ferry  Company  intrusted  the  duty  of  obtaining  the 
statue,  had  great  difficulty  in  tracing  this  one.  Fulton  is 
represented  leaning  on  the  model  of  the  Nassau,  the  first 
steam  ferryboat  placed  upon  the  Fulton  Ferry.  He  is 
dressed  in  the  ordinary  dress  of  the  period,  say  1815,  high- 
collared  coat,  tights,  and  Hessian  boot  with  tassels.  A 
cloak  is  thrown  over  his  shoulders.  The  face  wears  a  look 
of  intense  thought,  but  there  is  something  of  the  artistic 
dream  in  the  expression;  for  it  is  remarkable  that  Fulton, 


Appendix  135 

like  Morse,  was  originally  an  artist,  and  America  owes  to 
two  brethren  of  the  brush  the  two  applications  of  steam 
and  electricity  which  have  revolutionized  all  our  ideas  of 
travel,  of  space,  of  mechanical  possibility.  There  is  grace 
in  the  lines  of  the  statue  and  in  the  disposition  of  the  few 
shadows,  which  implies  considerable  original  talent,  and  a 
great  deal  of  conscientious  study  on  the  part  of  the  artist. 
The  material  of  which  it  is  cast  is  zinc,  and  this  has  been 
painted  a  light  stone  color.  It  weighs  about  2,300  pounds. 
It  is  a  fine  work  of  art. 

"Great  credit  is  due  to  Mr.  Pierrepont,  who  first  sug- 
gested the  work,  and  has  seen  it  successfully  executed." 

Brooklyn  Eagle,  1873. 


VI 
JOHN  FITCH'S  EXPERIMENT 

He  Tells  How  he  Hoped  to  Make  Steam  Navigation 
Possible  With  Huge  Oars  Moved  by  Machinery 

"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Columbian  Magazine: 

"  Sir,  Philad.,  Dec.  8,  1786. 

"  The  reason  of  my  so  long  deferring  to  give  you  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  Steam-boat,  has  been  in  some  measure  owing  to 
the  complication  of  the  works,  and  an  apprehension  that  a 
number  of  drafts  would  be  necessary,  in  order  to  shew  the 
powers  of  the  machine  as  clearly  as  you  would  wish.  But  as 
I  have  not  been  able  to  hand  you  herewith  such  drafts,  I  can 


l;>(»  Old  SteamV)oat  Days 

only  give  you  the  general  principles. — It  is,  in  several  parts, 
similar  to  the  late  improved  steam-engines  in  Europe,  though 
tliere  are  some  alterations — our  cylinder  is  to  be  horizontal, 
and  the  steam  to  work  with  equal  force  at  each  end.  The 
mode  by  which  we  obtain  (what  I  take  the  liberty  of  terming) 
a  vacuum,  is,  we  believe,  entirely  new;  as  is  also  the  method 
of  letting  the  water  into  it,  and  throwing  it  off  against  the 
atmosphere  without  any  friction.  It  is  expected,  that  the 
engine,  which  is  a  12  inch  cylinder,  will  move  with  a  clear 
force  of  11  or  12  cwt.  after  the  frictions  are  deducted;  this 
force  is  to  act  against  a  wheel  of  18  inches  diameter.  The 
piston  is  to  move  about  three  feet,  and  each  vibration  of  the 
piston  gives  the  axis  about  40  evolutions.  Each  evolution  of 
the  axis  moves  12  oars  or  paddles  5^  feet  (which  work  per- 
pendicularly, and  are  represented  by  the  stroke  of  the  paddle 
of  a  canoe).  As  6  of  the  paddles  are  raised  from  the  water, 
6  more  are  entered,  and  the  two  sets  of  paddles  make  their 
strokes  of  about  1 1  feet  in  each  evolution.  The  cranks  of  the 
axis  act  upon  the  paddles  about  J  of  their  length  from  the 
lower  end,  on  which  part  of  the  oar  the  whole  force  of  the 
axis  is  applied.  Our  engine  is  placed  in  the  boat  about  J 
from  the  stem,  and  both  the  action  and  re-action  turn  the 
wheel  the  same  way. 

"With  the  most  perfect  respect,  sir,  I  beg  leave  to  subscribe 
myself 

"Your  very  humble  servant, 

"JOHN  FITCH." 


PROMINENT   HUDSON    RIVER  STEAMBOATS 


rl.KKMONT 

rvU   l>K   NKITUNK 

I'AUAIION 

lUII'K    

KIKK  KI.Y    

I..Vl>Y    ItlCHMOSlI 

OI.IVK    IIUANCII 

rHAMKLUlK   I.IVIN0S-|X)N. 

rNll'KH    STATKS 

jAMI-^i   KENT 

(\)NS  TITUTION 

IMNSTKLLATION 

COMMKKCK 

SWIFT  SURK 

NKW    IMlILADKLI'lllA 

INPKrKNDENOK 

Al-liANY 

NDKl'll     AMEKICA 

VICTOUY 

DE   Wirr   CLINTON 

1)1110 

NOVELTY  

EKIE 

nlAMl'LAIN 

WES  ICIlhl^TEK 

millKUl'   L.   STEVENS 

IIIIillLANDEK 

SWALLOW 

HtX-KKSTER 

UTICA 

BALLOON  

NOKTII    AMEKICA 

SOUTH   AMEKICA .. 

TROY 

EMI'IRE 

NIAOAKA 

UiON    WITCH 

nil-    VAN   WINKLE 

UKNDKIK    HUDSON 

OKK(iON 

THOMAS    l-OWELL 

ISAAC   NEWTON 

ALIDA 

ARMENIA 

NEW  WORLD 

FRANCIS    SKIDDY 

DANIEL  DREW 

JAMES   W.    BALDWIN 

MARY  POWELL 

THOMAS    CORNELL 

BERKSHIRE 

ST.   JOHN 

CHAUNCEY   VIBBAKD 

DEAN    RICHMOND 

NUHPA  

DREW 

CITY  OF    TROY 

SARATOGA 

CITY  OF  CATSKILL 

ALBANY 

KAATERSKILL    

CITY  OF  KINGSTON 

NEWBURGH 

HOMER   KAMSDELL 

NEW  YORK 

ADIRONDACK 

ONTKORA 

C.    W.    MORSE 

HENDKICK    HUDSON 

PRINCETON 

KNICKERBOCKER 

ROBERT  FULTON  


1807 
IHOtl 
IHII 
IKIl 

l!il:l 

1813 
1815 
1816 
18.11 
1823 
183S 
1825 


1827 
1837 
1827 
1827 
1828 
1829 
1830 
1833 
1S33 
1S32 
183ri 
1835 
183C 
1836 
1837 
1839 
1839 
1810 
1841 
1813 
1844 
1844 


1845 
1846 
1846 
1847 
1847 
1847 
1852 
1660 
1801 
1861 
1S63 
1 863 
1863 
1664 
1664 
1665 
1866 
1876 
1677 
1880 
1880 
1883 


1887 
1887 
1896 
1898 
1904 
1906 
1907 
1907 
1909 


i'o.vsTKi'crtiv  isr 

Cluirlcn  ltr..wii 

.!.>  

ilo  

Cliarlvs  Uruwii 

do  

do  

Henry  Kckford 

J.  WIIIUIIIH 

llloKKoiii,  Smith  A  DInion.. 
Brown  A  B.-ll 

do  

C.  Borxh 

Ilrown  *  Bill 

J.  VHii«lin 

Wlllliim  Cnpea 

M,   Kenyon 

do  

CliRiincey  Goodrich 

Blown  &  Bell 

do  

Smith  &  DInioii . 

I^wrencu  it  Sneden 

William    Capes 

Smith*  Dlnion 

W'llllum   Capes 

Devine  Burtls 

do  

do  

Wm.   Capes 

Wm.    H.    Brown 

Georse  C()llyer 

Hogg  &  Delanmter 

Georse  Collyer 

Smith   &  Dimon 

Lawrence  &  Sneden 

William  Brown 

do  

Thomas  Collyer 

William  H.  Brown 

George  Collyer 

Thomas  Collyer 

M.  S.  Allison 

do  

E.  S.  Whitlock 

Morton  &  Ednionds 

John    Englls 

Lawrence  A  Sneden 

John    Enxlis 

J.  S.  Baldwin 

John    Englis 

do  

do  

Van  Loan  &  Macree 

Harlan  A  HolliuKsworth  Co 

Van  Loan  A  Magee 

Harlan  A  Hollingsworth  Co 

Neafle  A  Levy 

T.  S.  Marvel  A  Co 

Harlan  A  Holllngsworth  Co 

John    Enclis 

Marvel  A  Co 

Harlan  A  Holllngsworth  Co 

Marvel  A  Co 

N.  Y.  Shipbuilding  Co 

Marvel  A  Cr 

Marvel  A  Co 


Brooklyn  . .  . 

do 
Philadelphia. 
New  York  . . 
Philadelphia. 
New  York.  . 
Albany 

do      

do      


Hyde  Park .  . 
New  York .  . 

do 
New  York.. 
Kingston  .  . . 
New  York. 
Brooklyn  .  . . 
New  Y"ork . . 
Brooklyn. . . . 


Brooklyn. . 
New  York . 


Brooklyn. 
Athens. . . 
Brooklyn. 


Qreenpoint 

New  Baltinu.re.  . 
Greenpoint 


Athens 

Wilmington,  Del 
Athens 


Wilmington,  Del. 

Philadelphia 

Newbnrgh 

Wilmington 

Greenpoint 

Newburgh 

Wilmington,  Del. 

Newburgh 

Camden,  N.  J.  - . 

Newburgh 

Newburgh 


GROSS 

VJHSA'SIONS 

TOi\a 

L. 

i(. 

i>. 

133' 

X  18' 

X  7' 

295 

1 75' 

X34' 

X  8' 

331 

173' 

X  37' 

X  9' 

380 

118 

100' 

X  19' 

X  7' 

370 

113' 

295 

133' 

X  SO' 

495 

157' 

X  33i 

X  10" 

180 

140' 

364 

140' 

X  48' 

276 

146' 

X  37' 

275 

149' 

X  27' 

371 

130' 

X  24' 

X8i' 

205 

130' 

X  34' 

X8l' 

300 

170' 

X  34' 

534 
1,170 
1 ,050 


1,418 
1,235 


148'  X  20* 

313'  X  26'     X  9' 

218'  X  30'      X  8' 


983 
1,256 


2,645 
1 ,158 
2,535 
1,332 
2,002 
1,527 
1,438 

1,416 
1,361 
1,117 
1,033 
1,181 
1,552 
3,644 
1,213 
4,307 
2,847 
4,500 
2,000 
3,000 


233'  X  28' 
192'  X  30' 
106'  X  24' 
180'  X  28' 
180'  X  28' 
134'  X  23' 
176'  X  24' 
175'  X  24' 
224'  X  22' 
209'  X  24' 
160'  X  21J' 
160'  X  18' 
230'  X  26' 
260'  X  26' 
294'  X  61' 
307'  X  30' 
265'  X  28^' 
225'  X  27' 
242'  X  25' 
320'  X  35' 
330'  X  35' 
231'  X  28' 
336'  X  40' 
265'  X  30' 
185'  X  28' 
385'  X  35' 
322'  X  38' 
251'  X  30' 
242'  X  34' 
260'  X  34  y 
310'  X  34' 
253'  X  37' 
420'  X  51' 
281'  X  35' 
348'  X  46' 
253'  X  37' 
366'  X  4  7' 
300'  X  36' 
300'  X  35' 


X  9' 

X  8' 


X  8j' 
X  8J' 
X  8J' 
X71' 
X  9' 
X  9i' 

X  9' 

X9J' 


X  9.J' 
X  10' 
X  9' 
xlOj' 
X  10' 
X  8' 
X  11' 

X  Hi' 
X9i' 
X  9' 
X  10^' 

X  10' 
X  10' 
X  9' 
X  10' 
X  10' 


250' 

X  35' 

X  10' 

295' 

X40' 

xlU' 

281' 

X  38' 

X  10' 

250' 

X  33i' 

X13J' 

210' 

X  32' 

Xl3f 

213" 

X  32j' 

X  11' 

311' 

X  40' 

xl3i' 

410' 

X  50' 

X  12' 

250' 

X  33" 

x  10' 

427' 

X  ^.^■ 

X  14' 

390' 

X  45' 

X  134' 

440' 

X  50.6 

X  14.6 

330' 

X  42' 

X13.7 

415' 

X  501' 

X  14' 

1807=1907* 


Compiled  and  Arranged  by  S.  W.  5tanton. 


SIZE  ENGIXE     1 

^S  BUILT  BY 

DIAM. 

STROKE 

lyCHES 

FEET 

24 
33 

4 

iltou 

'8  Works 

do                     

33 

4 

Utou 

8  Works 

20 

3} 

<ln 

do 

40 

5 

Allaire 

44 

5 

;k 

........ 

44 

16  4  30 
16  4  30 

55 

44 

6.1 

44 

9 
10 
4 
4 
10 
10 
9 
8 

Allaire 

66 

10 

60 
30 

9 
6 

ron  Works 

t  Foandry 

44 

10 

0                 

42 

10 

36 
41 

10 
10 

)                  

46 

10 

43 

10 

)                   

43 

10 

ninshain 

28 

H 

48 

11 

54 

11 

;  Foandry 

44 

10 

Itll8 

1 

(2)48 
60 

12 
11 

lani 

ater 

ithn 

1 

50 
72 
72 

10 

11 

11 

Llle 

4  Co 

■  * 

•,^ 

48 
8li 
56 

11 

12 
12 

rka 

>un 

mm  4  Co 

10 

40 

14 

k 

76 

15 
14 

ngham  4  Co 

on  Works 

60 

10 

arrison  A  Co ... . 

60 

11 

lo                     

72 

12 

72 
54 

12 
11 

* 

•^ 

76 
62 

15 

12 

arr 

son  4  Co 

nlnitham  4  Co. . . 

75 

14 

arriaon  4  Co   . . . 

37 

5 

■k» 

80 
60 

14 
12 

■on 

Works 

9  4 

•q 

60 
66 
73 

12 
12 
12 

1 

63 
30  4  56 

12 
3 

oil 

ngsworth  Co. 

1  vv 

26  4  45 

28  4  52 

75 

3 
3 
12 

1  rlx 

It 

.  etcher  Co 

81 

12 

55 

10 

81 

12 

45  4  70 

7 

8.-. 

12 

70 

12 

45  4  70 

7 

N.  Y.  and  Albany  , 


N.  Y.  and  Newburgh. 
N.  Y.    and  Albany  . . 


N.  Y.  and  Troy.., 
lo 
nd  Albany 


N.  Y.  and  Newbnrgli 

N.  Y.  and  Troy 

N.  Y.  and  Albany  . . . , 


Pou^^hkeepsie  and  Albany 
N.  Y.  and  Albany 


N.  Y.  and  Troy . 


N.  Y.  and  Albany  . 


N.  Y.  and  Newburgh, 
Y.  and  Albany   , . 


X.  Y.  and  Kondout . 


nd  Hudson. 
N.  Y.  and  Albany. 


N.  Y. 


nd  Hudson, 
nd  Albany . 
nd  Troy . . . 


do 


anil  Catskill 

N.  Y.  and   Albany    

N.  Y.   and  Catskill 

N.  Y.  and  liondout 

N.  Y.  and  Newburgh 

do  

N.  Y.  and  Albany 

People's  Line,  N.Y.  4  Albany. 

ml  Catskill  Line 

People's  Line,  N.Y.  4  Allmny. 

Hudson  River  Day  Line 

People's  Line,  N.Y.  4  Albany. 
Citizens'  Line,  N.  Y.  A  Troy. . 
Hudson  River  Day  Line 


REMARKS 

Lengthened  1808  and  name  changed  to  NORTH  RIVER. 

Broken  up. 

Struck  a  rock  and  sunk  near  Albany. 

Had  mate  in  PERSEVERANCE,  both  broken  up. 

Broken  up. 

Broken  up  about  1830. 

Built  for  N.  Y.  and  New  Brunswick  route.      Broken  up. 

Placed  on  L  \.  Sound  1828;  Boston  4  Portland  route  1832. 

N.Y.  4  New  Haven  route;  afterwards  towboat  on  Hudson. 

Stake  boat  on  North  River  until  1895  ;  broken  up. 

Altered  into  towboat  named  INDIANA  ;  broken  up. 

Dismantled  and  engine  taken  to  Lake  Erie. 

Altered  1852  and  named  ONTARIO;  broken  up  1894. 

Altered  into  towboat  ;  broken  up. 

Altered  into  towboat ;  broken  up. 

Altered  Into  towboat ;  broken  up. 

Lenghlened  1839  to  289  feet  ;  broken  up. 

Two  beam  engines  ;  sunk  by  ice  1839. 

Altered  into  towboat  ;  sunk  1845. 

Twice  enlarged  ;  broken  up. 

Broken  up. 

Lengthened  to  220  feet ;  2  engines  ;  12  boilers  ;  4  stacks. 
Two  engines  ;  4  smokestacks  ;  engines  placed  in  TROY. 
Mate  to  ERIE  ;  broken  up. 

Altered  into  towboat  named  HUDSON  ;  broken  up. 

Broken  up;  engine  placed  in  CHARLOTTE  VANDERBILT. 
Went  to  Delaware  River;  broken  up. 
Lost,  April  7,  1845  ;  over  100  persons  perished. 
Broken  up. 

.\ltered  into  towboat ;  condemned  1875. 
Broken  up  on  Delaware  River. 
Broken  up  at  New  Orleans. 
Broken  up  ;  engine  placed  in  BERKSHIRE. 
Engines  from  ERIE  ;  placed  horizontally  ;  broken  up. 
In  collision,  July  16,  1853  ;  broken  up. 
Altered  Into  towboat  ;  broken  up  1898. 
Name  changed  to  ERIE  ;  made  barge  ;  broken  up. 
Wrecked  at  Albany,  April  16,  1872. 
Broken  up. 

Lost  by  collision  with  steamer  City  of  Boston,  1864. 
Broken  up. 

Lengthened,  1854,  to  405  feet ;  burned  Dec.  5,  1863. 
Altered  into  towboat ;  broken  up. 
Went  to  Potomac  Kiver,  1883  ;  burned  Jan.  5,  1886. 
Engine  put  in  ST.  JOHN  ;  broken  up. 
Wrecked,  Nov.  5,  1864  ;  engine  in  DEAN  RICHMOND. 
Burned  August  29,  1885. 

I.*ngthened  to  273  feet  ;  now  named  CENTRAL-HUDSON. 
Lengthened  to  300  feet  ;  running  1907. 
Wrecked  March  27,  1882. 
Bunied  June  5,  1864  ;  40  persons  lost. 
Burned  Jan.  24,1885. 
Broken  up,  1902. 
Running  to  Troy,  1907. 

Propeller;  name  changed  to  METROPOLITAN;  brnken  up. 
Broken  up,  1904. 
Burned,  April  6,  1907. 

Sunk  by  collision,  Oct.  13, 1906:  raised  and  rebuilt,  1907. 
Burned  Feb.,  1883. 

Lengthened,  1893,  to  325  feet ;  running  1907. 
Running  1907. 

Propeller  ;  sold,  1889,  for  service  on  Paclflc;  sunk  1899. 
Propeller  ;  running  1907. 

Propeller  ;  lengthened  1885  to  237  feet  ;  running  1907. 

I.engthened  to  350  feet;  running  1907. 

Running  1907. 

do 

do 

do 

Ready  for  service  1908. 
do. 

Ready  for  service  1909. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Page 

Albany 35,72 

Amsterdam 89 

Baker's  Falls 122 

Barlow,  Joel 4,  12 

Brownne,  Charles 10 

Buckman,  Ira 79 

Buffalo 90 

Builders  of  steamboats .  . .  53,  54 

Calliope 27 

Canal  packet  boats 86 

Captains  of  Steamboats 
Anderson,  Capt.  A.  L. .  .     63 
Anderson,  Capt.  A.  E. .  .     63 

Bartholomew,  Capt 60 

Benton,  Capt.  C 60 

Bruder,  Capt 82 

Bunker,  Capt.  Elihu  F.  31,60 

Burnett,  Capt.  J.  M 28 

Cochran,  Capt 60 

Cruttenden,  Capt.  R.  G.  60,  61 

DeGroot,  Capt.  A 61 

Drake,  Capt 60 

Fitch,  Capt 60 

Fountain,  Capt 60 

Furey,  Capt.  R.  G 61 

Gorham,  Capt.  A 61 

Halstead,  Capt.  Chas. ...     61 
Hitchcock,  Capt.  Dave. .     64 


Captains — Cont'd.  Page 

Houghton,  Capt.  "Pug"  .  61 
Hulse,  Capt.  Thos.  N. .  .  61 
Jenkins,  Capt.  Samuel  14,  59 
Johnson,  Capt.  Samuel .  .     61 

Kellogg,  Capt.  H.  J 61 

Macy,  Capt.  R.  B 61 

Moore,  Capt.  H 60 

Odell,  Capt.  J.  S 61 

Peck,  Capt.  D 60 

Peck,  Capt.  W.  H 61 

Post,   Capt 64 

Roe,  Capt.  J.  S 63 

Roorback,  Capt 59 

Samuels,  Capt.  John ....     61 

Sherman,  Capt 60 

Squires,  Capt.  A.  H 77 

Temple,  Capt.  Harvey .  .     88 

Tupper,  Capt.  G.  0 61 

Tupper,  Capt.  W.  W....  61 
Wiswall,  Capt.  Saml...59,  61 

Wiswall,  Capt.  T 60 

Clay,  Henry 23 

Clinton's  big  ditch ........     90 

Clinton,  Gov.  DeWitt. . .  .90,  91 

Coal-burning  boilers 54 

Collect  Pond,  N.  Y 2,38 

Copper  boilers 54,  72 

Corning,  Erastus 24 


liO 


Old  Steamboat  Days 


Page 

Oirnwallis,  Genl 73 

Dam  at  Troy I'ii 

Disaoters  on  the  river 75 

Discoverie 117 

Dolphin 91 

Dorothea 5 

Drew,  Daniel 24,  63 

Emmett,  Mr 42,46 

Engineers 64 

Erie  Canal 84,  90,  91,  92 

Erie  Railway 73 

Fitch,  John 2,38 

Fowler,  Reginald 25 

Franklin,  Benjamin 3 

Fulton,  Robert,  1,  17,  19,  20,  108 

Fulton  Ferry 16 

Fulton  Water  Gate 112 

Gibbons,  Thos 41 

Glens  Falls 122 

Grant,  Genl.  Fred  D 109 

Half  Moan 113,  114, 

115,  116,  117 

Henry  KnowUon 75 

Hoboken,  N.  J 2 

Hog  frames 57 

Horse  ferryboats 16 

Hudson 69 

Hudson's  Bay 117 

Hudson,   Henry..  108,    114, 

115,  116,  117 
Hudson  Memorial  Bridge.  .   110 

Hudson  River  lines 35,  102 

Hudson  River  R.  R 25,  33 

Iron  boilers 72 

Iron  hulls 56 


Page 
Kirkpatrifk,   Chief  Justice,     41 

Kosciusko,  Genl 23 

Little  Falls 89 

Livingston,  Chancellor  Robt. 

R 7,8,14,39,90 

Livingston,     Harriet,     Ful- 
ton's wife 13 

Marshall,  John,  Chief  Jus- 
tice      51 

Memorial  park 112 

Mitchell,  Dr.  Samuel  L. .  .     91 

McKenny,  Thos.  L 94 

Monopoly  broken 37 

Newton,  Isaac 24,  55 

New   Amsterdam 117 

Newburgh  Bay 79 

Noah  Broxvn 79 

Noah's  Brig 78 

Oakley,  Mr 42,  45 

Ogden,  Ex-Gov 41 

Old  Hickory — Genl.  Jack- 
son       23 

Ormsbee,  Elijah 2 

Ossining 70 

Passenger  barges 97,  98,  99 

Piermont 73 

Pitt,  William 5 

Powell,  T.  &  J 98 

Propellers 57,   98 

Rates  of  fare 14,  20 

Richmond,  Dean 24 

Rival  Lines 30 

Rochester 89 

Rome 89 

Rondout 28 


Index 


141 


Page 

Roosevelt,  Nicholas  J 29 

Roosevelt,  Robert 109 

Rumsey,   James 1 

Runners  for  steamboats ....     32 

Safety  barges 71,  93, 

94,  95,  96,  97 

Saugerties 28 

Schenectady 89 

Seine  River 7 

Sloops 13,  36 

Steamboat  inspection  law,  71.  80 

Steamboat  profits 35 

Steamboat  racing 68,  71 

Steamboats 

Adirondack 82 

Advocate 21 

Air  Line,  ferryboat 28 

Albany 21 

Albany  II 67,  101 

Alida 21,  66,  70 

Andrew   Harder 22 

Armenia 25,  27,  66 

Asbury  Park 105 

Atlas 21 

Baloon 24,    55 

BeUona 41 

Berkshire 21,  81 

Bolivar 21 

Buffalo 21,  34 

CatskiU — City  of  Hudson    22 

Car  of  Neptune 18,  20 

Cataline 21 

Cayuga 21 

Champion 21 

Champlain 21,  67,  68 


Steamboats — Cont'd.         Page 
Chancellor  Limngston  19, 

20,  54,  66 
Chauncey   Vibbard 

22,  65,  66,  67 
Chief  Ju^ice  John  Mar- 
shall      60 

Chrystenah 22 

City  of  Boston 81 

City  of  Hiidson 21 

City  of  Troy 83 

Clermont,  renamed  North 
River,  1,  10,  13,  14,  18, 
19,  20,  39,  54,  58,  66,  76 

Columbia 22,  68 

Confidence 22 

Connecticut 21 

Constellation 20,  65,  66 

Constitution 20,    65 

Cornelius  Vanderbilt.  .  .69,  71 

Coxsackie 22 

C.W.Morse 21,101, 

103,   104,   105 

CuHis  Peck 22 

Daniel  Drew 22,  66 

Dean  Richmond 22,  63,  81 

DeWitt  Clinton 21,  79 

Diamond 21 

Drew 22,  63 

D.     S.     Miller— Pough- 

keepsie 22 

Eagle 21 

Emerald 21 

Empire 21,  79 

Empire  State 21 

Erastus  Coming 21 


IH 


Old  Steamboat  Days 


8ti>anihoats — Cont'd.         Pago 

Erie 21.   67 

Eureka 22 

Ej'prcss 21 

Fairfield 21 

Fanny 21 

Francis  SIciddy 66,  81 

Fulton 31 

Fulton,   ferryboat 16 

General  Jacksoti 22,  76 

General  Sedgivick 28 

General  Slocum 75 

Glni  Cove 22,  28 

Helen 21,  67 

Hendrik  Hudson  I,  21,  34,  70 
Hendrick  Hudson  H 

65,  101,  102 

Henry  Clay 21,70,79 

Henry  Eckford 21 

Hero 21 

Homer  RamsdcU 101 

Hope 21 

Illinois 22 

Independence 21 

Iran  Witch 22,  56 

Isaac  Newtrni 21,  55,  81 

James  Kent 21,  54 

James  Madison 21 

Jas.  W.  Baldwin — Central 

Hudson 22 

Jenny  Lind 21 

Jersey,  ferryboat 16 

J.    L.    Hasbrook — Marl- 
boro      22 

Joseph  Belknap 25 

Kaaterskill 22 


Steamboats — Cont'd.         Page 

Knickerbocker  1 21 

Knickerbocker  II 107 

Kosciuszko 21,  34,  69 

Larchmont 75 

Legislator 21 

Lung  Branch — Sleepy  Hol- 
low       25 

Manlmttan 21,    34 

Mary  PmveU.  .  .  .22,  56,  63,  66 

Mctamora 22 

M.  Martin 22 

McManv^ 22 

Mouse  in  the  Mountain .  .     41 

Newburgh 101 

New  Orleans 29 

New  Jersey 22 

New  London 71 

New  Philadelphia 21,  56 

NewW(yrld....'i\,S5,55, 

66,  70,  81 

New  York 67,  101 

Niagara 21 

Nimrod 21 

North  America.  .  .  .21,  54, 

65,  66,  68,  69,  76 

Norwich 26 

Novelty 54 

Nuhpa 22 

Ohio 21 

Olive  Branch 60 

Oliver  Elsworth 21 

Onteora 82,   101 

Oregm 21,  69,81 

Paragon 18 

Portsmouth 22 


Index 


143 


Steamboats — Cont'd.         Page 

Princeton 21,    107 

P.O.  Coffin 21 

Reindeer 70,  80 

Rhode  Island 21 

Richmond 21 

Rip  Van  Winkle 21,  63 

Riverside,  ferrj'boat 29 

Robert  Ftdt<m 103 

Roht.  L.  Stevens 21 

Rochester 68 

Rockland 21 

Roger  Williams 22 

Sandusky 21 

Santa  Claus 22 

Saratoga 82 

Savannah 29 

Shephard  Knapp 21 

South  America 21,  54 

StiUetto 66 

St.  John ...22,71,82 

St.  Nicholas 21 

Stovdinger 41 

Sun 22 

SwaUow 21,  68,  77 

Swift  Sure 60 

Syracuse 22 

Telegraph 69 

Thomas   Cornell 22 

Thomas  Powell 22 

Tolchester—S.  M.  Felton    25 

Troy 21 

Ulster 22 

Union 21 

United  States 21 

Utica 20 

Vamoose 67 


Steamboats — Cont'd.  Page 

Vanderbilt 34 

Vesuvius 9 

Victory 79 

Walk-in-the-Water 29 

Washington 22 

Wave 22 

Westchester 21 

Wm.  F.  Romer 22 

W.C.Redfield 22 

York,  ferryboat 16 

Steam  ferryboats 16 

Stevens,  Col.  John 2,  18 

St.  John,  Capt.  A.  P 24 

Stony  Point 113,  121 

Syracuse 89 

Tappan  Zee 121 

Tarrj'town 115 

TivoU 28 

Torpedoes,  submarine ....  5,  6,  7 

Towing  on  the  river 87 

Trinity  Church 16,    108 

Utica 89 

Vanderbilt,    "Commodore" 

C 20,  32,  33,34,  37,  40 

Vanderbilt,    Cornelius 109 

Verplanck's  Point 113 

Vibbard,   Chauncey 24 

Walmer  Roads  and  Castle      5 
Washington,   Genl.   George 

2,  113 

Webster,  Daniel 37,  42 

West,  Benjamin 3,  4 

West  Point 120 

Wirt,  Wm.,  Atty.  Genl 50 

Wood-burning   boilers 65 

Woodford,  Gen'I  Stewart  L.  110 


Colonial  Families 

OF  THE 

United  States  of  America 

In  which  is  given  the  History,  Genealogy  and  Armorial 

Bearings  of  Colonial  Families  who  settled  in  the 

American     Colonies     between    the     Periods 

from   tJie    Time    of   the    Settlement    of 

Jamestown,  13th  May,   1607 

to  the  Battle  of  Lexington,  19th  April,  1775 

EDITED    BY 

GEORGE  NORBURY  MACKENZIE,  LL.B. 

Member  oj  the  American  Historical  Association,  National  Genealogical 

Society,  Old  North-West  Genealogical  and  Historical  Society, 

Member  oj  the  Committee  on  Heraldry  and  Genealogy 

of  Maryland  Historical  Society 


THE  plan  of  the  work  is  to  give  a  sketch  of  the  life  of  the 
immigrant  ancestor,  the  family  from  which  he  sprung,  and 
the  direct  hne  of  descent  of  the  present  living  representative 
of  the  family,  together  with  armorial  bearings,  and  such  other 
matters  as  may  be  of  interest  not  only  to  the  present  but 
future  generations.  There  will  be  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pedigrees  in  each  volume  and  over  20,000  names  in  the 
index. 

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